By Greg Nixon
MICHELLE Davis knocked over her 250th two-pointer for the Wire as Warrington Wolves brushed aside Workington Town 48-0 and progress to the final of the Challenge Shield.
The Wire stand-off was given the chance to hit her personal milestone from the left-hand touchline as early as the fifth minute after winger Teneisha Fairbrother had finished off a sweeping move in the corner.
She went on to score a try and add another three conversions to take her personal points tally for the season to 110.
Davis said after the final whistle: “I didn’t even realise that milestone was coming so it was really nice to hear it announced.
“It was probably one of the best conversions I’ve done so it good to do it with that one.”
Wire raced into an 18-0 lead is many minutes after a cagey opening which saw both defences testing each other.
Danny Bound’s quick thinking paved the way Warrington’s opener after pouncing on the ball at a loose play the ball and scampering 30 yards before the ball was worked out wide to Fairbrother.
The second try was all about prop Beth Hayes – playing at loose forward – who launched a great kick from inside her own half to pin Workington in their own 20. When strong Wire defence forced the knock on, it was Hayes who took the ball to the line and offloaded to skipper Megan Bragg who fell over the line to score.
Davis’s conversion made it 12-0.
From the restart, great runs by Fairbrother and centre Kaitlin Hilton had Workington on the back foot once more.
And, when Davis spun the ball out wide to winger Cailey Miller, she broke down the right touchline, turned a ball inside which was kicked on and regathered by Davis to score under the posts and leave her with the easiest of conversions.
Just moments later, Davis was the architect again as she found Hollie Brussels who dummied her way over the line for her 14th try of the season. Davis missed the kick but Wire were looking comfortable at 22-0 with less than 20 minutes played.
And when Kaitlin Hilton raced through a gap to extend the lead, the visitors were looking down the barrel of a heavy defeat at 26-0.
As it was, the game became scrappy with error after error from both sides and it wasn’t until the final few moments of the half that Libby Clarke managed to crash over after some hard work from Hayes and Jen Myler. Davis’s extras gave Wire a 32-0 half time lead.
Handling didn’t get much better after the break, with Workington struggling to get any sort of foothold in the game despite the best efforts of full back Kacey Currie, scrum half Josie Scrimgeour and loose forward Georgia Naylor.
And it was from an error by the visitors on 50 minutes that lead to Wires’ next score when Rebecca Gilpin knocked on from a scrum on the Workington 30 metre line. Megan Condliffe and Shannon Stephens ran the ball in to take them within a metre of the try line before the ball was worked out to the left and Jen Myler sold an outrageous dummy to score her second of the season. Davis was unable to add the extras.
Ellie Jelves, Hilton and Miller added further tries to give Wire a comfortable 48-0 win and book their place in the Challenge Shield Final against Manchester Swinton Lionesses on July 19.
Davis said: “It was a good game in hot conditions, which was going top be the challenge for both sides today. It was a nil so that was good for us.
“We are back to the league now but obviously we have one eye on the final. We have got to focus on that because it is a long season and we are only halfway through.
“It’s always good to get over the tryline, which doesn’t happen that much for me these days so when it does happen, I’m always made up.
“But this is about the team and the girls, and it doesn’t really matter who gets the tries as long as we are winning.”
