CARDIFF Demons proved too powerful for a new-look Warrington Wolves side in their first round of the Betfred Challenge Cup at Asics Stadium, Victoria Park.
Wire included nine debutants in their first competitive squad of the season but, despite a promising start, couldn’t handle the Cardiff half-back combination of Amberley Ruck and Morgan Whittaker as the visitors ran in 10 tries in a 42-14 victory.
Proud skipper Danni Bound led from the front as she marked her 50th appearance for Warrington and would have been player of the match but for a couple of knocks that saw her leave the game at crucial times of the game.
And an early injury to scrum half Charlie McGraw after a great break from inside her own half didn’t help the home team’s confidence as, after mistakes from both sides, the Cardiff halves worked the ball well to full back Leanne Burnell who weaved her way through some poor defence to score the opening try of the game on 10 minutes. Amber Ruck converted to make it 6-0 to the visitors.
The Cardiff restart was a poor one and Warrington took full advantage as Bound made good yards form acting half back then, following the tackle, the ball was moved through hands for Sydney Alderman-Smith to crash over on the right to score on her debut. Emily Knowles just fell short with her conversion attempt.
Wire were the better team at this point with Liv Argent and Amber Harmon making some good breaks, and when Emily Downes went close with a barnstorming run, Bound dashed over from dummy half to be harshly judged to have not grounded the ball.
That proved to be the turning point of the game, as Cardiff made a break from inside their own half and Ruck got the ball out to Zoe Healey on the wing who showed a great turn of pace to go over on the right to make it 10-4 to Cardiff.
As errors started to mount up for Warrington, Healey again showed her class as she weaved her way over the try line to score and then centre Lora Roberts crashed over after the visitors had opened up the Wire defence once more to make it 20-4 with half time approaching.
Coach Ged Ginty made some changes with Alderman slotting in at full back which seemed to tighten things up for a while before errors again cost field position and Healey completed her hat-trick on the stroke of half time to make it 24-4 to the visitors at the break.
If Wire needed to consolidate in the second half, a mistake from the kick off which gifted Cardiff position didn’t help as the visitors capitalised on the mistake and moved the ball wide for centre Williams to add to the scoreline just minutes into the second half.
With 2024’s player of the year Millie Bell moved from loose forward into the halves, Wire seemed to be growing into the game but, despite Cardiff stretching their lead to 34-4, some great runs by Wire second row Amber Harmon started to punch holes in the Demon’s defence to create a hole for centre Nicole Barnett to scythe through to reduce the deficit to 34-8.
Winger Frances Layton went over for a couple of tries for the visitors before skipper Danni Bound uses all her experience to crash over from acting half to make the final score a little more respectable.
Head coach Ged Ginty said: “We knew Cardiff was only to be a tough game but we didn’t help ourselves with some of the errors we made.
“We will come away from this and learn about the areas we need to improve. In the last 20 minutes we started to play a little bit more but it took us too long.
“I think will ball in hand we could be dangerous but we need to do the right thing more often.”
