THE curtain came down on Warrington Wolves’ Women’s Super League season with a 56-6 defeat to Saints at the Totally Wicked Stadium.
Carlize Magraw scored the Wire’s only try as Saints proved just too strong for their visitors, with centre Paige Travis running in a hat-trick after opening the score as early as the fifth minute.
The final scoreline didn’t reflect the effort that Warrington put into the game against the Challenge Cup holders, more than holding their own defensively in parts and, perhaps with better decision-making near the try-line, could – and should – have scored more points.
The home side benefited from an early mistake from strong-running forward Abbey Latchford near her own line, with Faye Gaskin then exposing the defence with a cross-field kick for Travis to pounce.
Warrington came back into the game and made some inroads into the Saints defence but suffered from costly errors in good areas of the pitch to let the home side off the hook in the opening 15 minutes.
And when Amy Daniels, who was making her 50th and final appearance for the Wire, knocked on after Warrington had been awarded a penalty for a high shot, the Saints took full advantage from the resultant scrum.
With strong runs from Shona Hoyle and ex-Warrington player Georgia Sutherland taking them to within a couple of metres of the line, winger Eboni Partington was able to take advantage of the gap created to go over in the left corner to make it 8-0.
Saints thought they were in again moments later when, helped up-field by consecutive penalties, Partington thought she had scored again only for it to be ruled out for a forward pass.
The respite didn’t last long as the rampaging Travis broke through the Wire defence on 23 minutes to send Gaskin in under the sticks and give Amy Taylor the easiest of conversions.
Saints then took full advantage of the tiring Warrington defence in the final 15 minutes of the half, running in three tries from Tara Jones, the second for Travis and then Shola Hoyle under the sticks after Gaskin had sold an outrageous dummy to send her in, to make it 32-0 at the break.
Magraw’s try came early in the second half after Emily Rudge had knocked on. Latchford took full advantage with a great run down field and then Magraw managed to squeeze the ball down in the corner. Stand-off Michelle Davis – also playing her final game for the club – knocked over the extras with a superb conversion from the touchline.
That was to be the only joy for the Wire in front of a 580-strong crowd as Saints again took full advantage of a hard-working but tiring defence, full-back Rebecca Rotherham making a great break to go in just moments later.
Hoyle scored her second after Warrington had struggled to get out of their own 20, then winger Erin Stott scored the try of the game on the hour mark running almost the full-length of the pitch to beat the cover defence in the corner. Taylor’s impressive touchline conversion brought up the 50 for the home side.
There was still time for Travis to complete her hat-trick in the dying moments before both teams gave a guard of honour for Warrington retirees Davis, Daniels, captain Armani Sharrock and coach Lee Westwood on the final whistle.
Warrington: 5 Sammi Simpson FB, 2 Abigail Johnstone W, 30 Emily Tandy C, 11 Katie Williams C, 28 Rebecca Nixon W, 1 Michelle Davis SO, 7 Charlie McGraw SH, 15 Emily Downs P, 9 Danni Bound H, 13 Amy Daniels P, 16 Georgia Westwood SR, 12 Kacy Hayley SR, 24 Abbi Latchford LF. Subs: Kim Seddon, 22 Claire Mullaney, 27 Jenna Friery, Tina Milan, 18th Chez McCartney.
St Helens: 1 Rebecca Rotherham FB, 29 Erin Stott W, 11 Paige Travis C, 4 Naomi Williams C, 3 Eboni Partington W, Amy Taylor SO, 7 Faye Gaskin SH, 10 Chantelle Crowl P (C), 9 Tara Jones H, 30 Georgia Sutherland P, 8 Shona Hoyle SR, 12 Emily Rudge SR, 13 Jodie Cunningham LF. Subs: 14 Victoria Whitfield, 16 Darcy Stott, 17 Philippa Birchall, 19 Katie Mottershead, 18th Alyx Bridge
Warrington Wolves Women’s Head Coach Lee Westwood to step down
