Pictures Eddie Whitham
WARRINGTON Wolves put breathing space between themselves and the chasing pack with a convincing 34-4 win over Catalans.
Steve Price’s side led 14-4 on the hour mark and Bryson Goodwin’s try shortly after enabled them to ease through the final quarter.
The win puts them six points clear of the Dragons in third.
Young full-back Josh Thewlis became the second youngster player to play for the Wolves in the Super League era, and he dealt superbly with an early attacking kick.
The game was scoreless for 17 minutes, that was until Matty Smith’s looping pass found Fouad Yaha for the first try of the game.
Warrington had to wait until the 31st minute to trouble the scorers, a fine solo try by Daryl Clark enabling Declan Patton to nudge them in front at 6-4.
They would stretch that lead to 12-4 in the final minute of the first half, Blake Austin scoring the try that would give them a bit of breathing space at the start of the second half.
Five minutes after the break, Patton added a penalty to stretch the lead to 10 points.
After a spell of pressure, Goodwin powered over from 20 metres out and that was very much the game, and Sitaleki Akauola forced his way over under the attention of three defenders for a fourth Wolves try.
Catalans had been out-energised and out-enthused, and Warrington would add another try when a nice move started by Austin on the right saw Josh Charnley kick through and with Tony Gigot unable to deal with an awkward bouncing ball, Charnley managed to catch up and ground the ball, with Patton converting for 32-4.
Patton rubbed further salt in the Dragons’ wounds with a late penalty to make it a 30-point win.
Warrington: Thewlis, Johnson, Goodwin, King, Charnley, Austin, Patton, Hill, Clark, Cooper, Currie, Hughes, Philbin. Subs: Murdoch-Masila, J Clark, Akauola, Davis.
Catalans: Gigot, Romano, Mead, Langi, Yaha, Tomkins, Smith, Simon, McIlorum, Moa, Whitley, Garcia, Bousquet. Subs: Julien, Belmas, Baitieri, Kasiano.
