WARRINGTON Wolves crushed Keighley Cougars 74-4 in the Tetley Challenge Cup fourth round win at Cougar Park as Head Coach Tony Smith took no chances by fielding a strong side which ran in 13 tries.
Explaining his decision to field eleven members of his winning team from last year’s final Smith said:”We came here with a strong team because we needed to get on top of some aspects of our game.
“We needed a good hit-out.”
“The first half probably took its toll on our opponents. The floodgates opened for a while but they didn’t throw the towel in by any means. They kept fighting and scored a try and almost got another at the end.
“All credit to Keighley. That’s our third year in a row with them and they’re getting sick of us. But they showed a lot of fortitude.”
The Cougars survived the first nine minutes before Chris Riley opened the scoring when he broke the line and raced 70 metres, with Hodgson adding the extras.
Then Ryan Atkins scored the firts of four tries, taking three defenders over the line with him from dummy half and then Trent Waterhouse powered over just to the left of the posts on 17 to give Hodgson a third simple kick.
Keighley stemmed the tide briefly before Atkins (28) went in for his second after a great passing move and Richie Myler and Joel Monaghan combined to get Rhys Williams in just before the break.
Williams was over again just two minutes after the restart with Waterhouse providing the break as the Wolves turned the screw in the second half.
Waterhouse was involved again to get Atkins away for a 30-metre hat-trick try and, after Myler (46) grabbed his second of the game, Atkins picked up a grubber and streaked 80 metres to the line for his fourth.
Riley and Gareth O’Brien both crossed in the next four minutes before Paul White scooped up a loose ball and danced through a static Warrington defence to get the Cougars on the board on 56.
But the Cougars were breached again when Glenn Riley (59) bulldozed over from close range for a try on his debut.
Hodgson completed the scoring when he gave good support to Myler and Ben Currie in another slick move.
The Wolves then gave the cougars some respite in the final 14 minutes as they took their foot off the gas.
