WARRINGTON Wolves started a tricky period with a 30-10 home win over York Knights.
Ahead of their crunch game in hand away at Hull KR on Tuesday night, the Wolves did enough to lift themselves up to third in Super League, albeit it may only be for 48 hours until Wakefield host St Helens.
They fell behind against a York side who have proved more than competitive in their first year in the competition. Impressive Australian scrum half Cody Hunter put up a high kick that was contested for, with the ball then ending up in the hands of former St Helens winger Jon Bennison, who managed to get an offload away while he was being tackled in touch inside to Paul McShane to score his first try of the season.
Warrington welcomed back talisman George Williams after nearly four months out, and it was his loose pass that bounced kindly for Josh Thewlis to weave around three York defenders to the Wolves on the board on nine minutes.
But York re-took the lead and again it was Hunter’s boot causing problems, this time a grubber kick that neither Thewlis or Matty Ashton could deal with, enabling Bennison to nip in and score.
Williams responded by creating a try with a kick of his own, Sam Stone doing well to beat the ball to the dead ball line and ground it, before Ewan Irwin pierced through from 40 metres to take advantage of some weak full-back tackling by Toa Mata’afa and score.
Irwin added a late penalty to give Warrington a two-score lead at 18-10 at half time.
The first score in the second half was always going to be crucial, and it came through Danny Walker, almost falling over the line from dummy half after York had overread his look right.
York had their moments, a spell of six or seven minutes where they had a look at the Wolves line without managing to score, before Warrington threatened to run away with it when Irwin picked up a loose ball to run in from 60 metres. However, the video referee decided James Bentley had knocked on in the build-up, to keep York’s interest in the game at 24-10.
Warrington huffed and puffed but did find their fifth try through Arron Lindop, after Albert Hopoate had caught a kick and passed inside in the tackle, with Irwin adding a late penalty to seal the win.
Williams got through 80 minutes unscathed, with Warrington also leaving Liam Byrne, Josh Smith and Kelepi Tanginoa out of the side with a run of three games in 10 days.
Warrington: Thewlis, Hopoate, Lindop, King, Ashton, Williams, Irwin, Thomas, Walker, Harrison, Bentley, Stone, Currie. Subs: Holroyd, Sipley, Wood, Crowther.
York: Mata’afa, Bennison, Wood, Williams, Nofoaluma, Hunter, McShane, Martin, Inman, Va’a, Dee, Field, Hingano. Subs: Balmforth, Vaughan, Thompson, Foster.
