Warrington Wolves end Sheffield Eagles’ Cup run with 6-34 victory in Challenge Cup clash

Sheffield Eagles made a couple of changes to their side for this important cup tie, with George Griffin coming into the squad to replace Jack Bussey after Bussey's injury in their last cup fixture, and Alex Foster making an appearance as an interchange.

This cup tie marked Warrington Wolves’ first competitive game of their season, coming just before their first Super League fixture on the 13th of this month.

The Eagles haven’t faced the Wolves in a Challenge Cup fixture since 1997, when Warrington won 31-18.

The fixture started very tense, with strong defence from both sides forcing errors and keeping the scoreline level.

Fifteen minutes into the tie, Warrington finally managed to overcome their opponents after a couple of quick passes down to the wing allowed Toby King to power through and put the ball over the line.

After five more minutes of play, Warrington further added to their score with a line break from Cai Taylor-Wray, resulting in a try between the sticks, and bringing their lead to 0-10.

Following these successive tries, the Eagles responded positively with a strong offence across the next 10 minutes, resulting in Kai Morgan scoring after a rapid break through the middle of the Warrington defence, helping his side come within 4 points of the Wolves.

However, just before half-time, Warrington put up another 6 points against the Eagles once again as Josh Thewlis grounded the ball in the corner in the 38th minute.

Following 14 minutes of back-and-forth, strong sets of offence and defence from both sides, it was Warrington who opened up the scoring in the 2nd half when Kelepi Tanginoa’s offload put Cai Taylor-Wray through for his 2nd of the game.

Albert Hopoate followed this up with a try in the 61st minute, bringing the score up to 6-28 and giving his side a 22-point lead.

George Williams put Tommy Rhodes through to score on his full debut for his club, and this finished the game with a 6-34 victory for the Wolves.

Both sides had a strong kicking game, with Eagles’ Jordan Lilley converting his side’s only goal of the game and Warrington’s Marc Sneyd managing 5 from 6 attempts at conversions.

In a post-match interview, Eagles’ head coach Craig Lingard commended his team’s valiant effort against a top Super League side, remarking that, “we made it tough for a really good team, so I’m massively proud of the effort from the boys today.”

Similarly, Warrington head coach Sam Burgess was also impressed by the Eagles, as he commented in his post-match interview that, “Sheffield kicked well, completed well and made a good game of it, they had a plan, and you could see that.”

Following on from the weekend’s defeat and the Eagles cup journey coming to an unfortunate end, the Sheffield side will be hoping to bounce back in their next Championship fixture away against Halifax Panthers this Sunday (3 pm KO).

Sheffield Eagles: Marsh, Brown, Hodson, Gill, Walkley, Morgan, Lilley, Matongo, Bowes, Reilly, Bower, Farrell, Griffin

Interchanges (all used): Fitzsimmons, Johnson, Peachey, Foster

18th Man: Broadbent

Tries: Morgan (32’)

Goals: Lilley (1/1)

Warrington Wolves: Taylor-Wray, Thewlis, King, Hopoate, Smith, Williams, Sneyd, Byrne, Walker, Thomas, Stone, Bentley, Currie

Interchanges (all used): Crowther, Philbin, Rhodes, Tanginoa

18th Man: Wood

Tries: King (16’), Taylor-Wray (21’, 54’), Thewlis (38’), Hopoate (61’), Rhodes (70’)

Goals: Sneyd (5/6)

Referee: S. Mikalauskas