by Greg Nixon
TEENAGE winger Evie Williams enjoyed a dream debut for Warrington Wolves as she ran in four tries in a convincing 42-10 win over Hull KR.
Williams, 17, scored with almost her first touch of the ball after she took a restart well inside her own half and raced down the right to go in at the corner.
That was the second try in as many minutes after Michelle Davis had barged the Robins’ full-back Eve Conn out of the way to crash over by the posts
It put Wire in a commanding 10-0 lead after just five minutes, one which the home side never looked like losing in what was – at times – a bad-tempered match in the heat.
Wolves’ centre Kaitlin Hilton can count herself unlucky to have been shown a yellow card alongside Ella Howe for her part in a brawl which appeared to have been started by the KR scrum half on 50 minutes.
The visitors’ loose forward Jenna Greening could have no such complaints after being sent to the sidelines for 10 minutes for dissent just moments later, leaving her side down to 11 players.
And with just seconds remaining, KR’s miserable afternoon was complete with a red card shown to their impressive prop Lois Dutton-Brown, again for disputing a referee’s call in favour of Warrington.
Hull KR’s discipline and handling had let them down all afternoon, helping Wire to open up an early 16-0 lead, strong-running Georgia Westwood crashing over on 13 minutes after the visitors conceded two quick penalties in their own 20. Davis landed her second conversion of the afternoon.
Teneisha Fairbrother was denied a try just moments later when she was bundled into touch in goal, which seemed to spark KR into life.
Dutton-Brown and her front row partner Jade Smalley started to make inroads into the Wire defence, aided by some clever play by Greening in organising the visitors’ attack.
Wire were firmly on the back foot but their defence was holding the line despite conceding two goal line dropouts and giving away a number of penalties in quick succession close to the posts.
But when Beth Rushmer was held up over the line on 32 minutes, the home defence was finally stretched too thin and Ebony Oaten-Powdrill managed to burrow over to finally get KR on the board. Howe missed the conversion to leave the score 16-4.
Warrington closed the half as they started it, with first Hilton scooting in on the left then, from the restart, Davis sold an outrageous dummy to break through the defence and feed Williams who again showed an impressive turn of pace to beat the covering tacklers and score on the right. Davis missed both conversion attempts to take Wire into the break with a 24-4 lead.
Williams completed her hat-trick just two minutes into the second half, winning the footrace to the line after a strong break down the middle by Shannon Stephens.
Davis added the extras to make it 30-4.
KR hit back after the brawl when, from the resulting penalty, they moved up field for Dutton-Brown to power over. With Howe in the bin, it was left to Abigail Patterson to add the extras and take the score to 30-10.
The visitors arguably enjoyed their best spell of the game while they were down to 11 players, with Warrington’s discipline and handling starting to let them down.
But the home side’s defence held firm, and any resistance was finally broken when Williams broke free inside her own 20 and sailed in for her fourth try on the hour mark.
Two late tries from Fairbrother and Hollie Brussels – again after some impressive work by Westwood – made the final score 42-10 to the Wire.
Williams, who was in for the injured Cailey Miller, was naturally delighted with her debut but only found out she was playing when she was told by head coach Lee Westwood on Friday.
She said: “This morning when I woke up, I was just thinking we will see what happens – if I drop a ball or miss some tackles it doesn’t matter and had no idea I’d score one try, never mind four.
“Last week I was told there was a possibility of me starting so I did some training with the first team
“Wes said I was definitely in on Friday, so I got to do Captain’s Run to get to know the girls a little better.”
Williams, who has only been playing Rugby League for a year, added: “I’ve played Rugby Union for two seasons so that has helped me to merge into League more, but it seems strange to be in the first team after just seven games with the Academy.
“But Wes told me to go out there and play my own game, just do what I do and don’t overthink things, which definitely helped.”
Williams scores: Picture Jack Ettinger
