WARRINGTON Wolves are off to Wembley once again after a brilliant 21-14 win over Leigh Leopards in the Challenge Cup semi-final.
The sun was shining down on the Wolves at the Totally Wicked Stadium as the returning Marc Sneyd helped lead them to victory, with Paul Vaughan and Matt Dufty also immense for Sam Burgess’ side, who will now face Hull KR in the final on June 7.
The semi-final couldn’t have got off to a worse start for Warrington when Sneyd’s kick was charged down by Edwin Ipape, and the Leigh hooker raced 40 metres to score in the corner inside 50 seconds.
But despite that early setback, Warrington enjoyed the better of the match and were worthy winners.
Their opening score came when a long Stefan Ratchford pass sat up for Josh Thewlis to go on the outside, and although his inside ball was deflected back by a Leigh player, Rodrick Tai showed great agility to dive and get to the ball in the air and manage to ground it before the deadball line.
Vaughan was leading Warrington from the front with his direct running and offload game, and he was the unlikely scorer of the second try, scooting over from dummy half under the posts after his offload had released Sam Powell in behind the Leigh line.
Sneyd’s leadership quality and kicking game was evident later in the half too, he took a penalty goal after Jack Hughes was offside in taking a loose ball that had been dropped from a Sneyd kick, and then landed a drop goal from bang in front for 15-4.
Leigh, as expected, came out fighting in the second half and came within inches of getting a try back when David Armstrong was held up over the line, the tackle after Ipape had been halted just short by Josh Thewlis following Umyla Hanley’s break down the right.
They got their try back through Tesi Niu on 47 minutes, finishing off a break on the left, but the Leopards struggled to get a foothold.
Another 20 minutes passed without score until Toby King, another injury-doubt pre-match, crossed in the left corner and when Sneyd nailed the touchline conversion, it was a tall order facing Leigh.
They did score almost immediately through Niu again, a few tackles after they had recovered a short kick-off, but they couldn’t deny Warrington, who reach the final for the 8th time in 16 seasons.
Warrington: Dufty, Thewlis, King, Tai, Ashton, Ratchford, Sneyd, Vaughan, Powell, Yates, Holroyd, Fitzgibbon, Currie. Subs: Philbin, Lindop, Harrison, Crowther.
Leigh: Armstrong, McIntosh, Niu, Hanley, Charnley, O’Brien, Lam, Trout, Ipape, Mulhern, Hughes, O’Neill, Liu. Subs: David, McNamara, Hodgson, Ofahengaue.
