RESERVES: Wire run riot after 'extremely frustrating' start

Yahoo

17-03-2025

WARRINGTON Wolves' reserves turned on the style to extend their winning start to the season on Saturday.
They had to overcome what head coach Ryan O'Brien labelled an 'extremely frustrating' first quarter which featured them conceding in the very first set of the game, but that was the extent of their hardship as they ran in 11 tries against Leigh Leopards.
Three of those went to Frank Sergent as he completed a hat-trick, with fellow winger Jake Thewlis bagging a brace in a 58-8 victory at Victoria Park.
Zack Gardner, Joe Hickey and Tom McKinney all touched down in the first half with Nolan Tupaea, Flynn Holden and Oliver Morgan scoring after the break.
Despite initially struggling and falling behind through a try from ex-Wolves centre Jack Darbyshire, who pounced on an error from a kick to touch down inside two minutes before adding another try after the break, O'Brien was pleased with how his players were able to ride out the danger and earn the right to express themselves.
However, he picked out an area in which he says his players will be working hard ahead of their next game – a trip to face Bradford Bulls on Friday, March 28.
'The first quarter was extremely frustrating - we were coughing up far too much ball and could not string back-to-back sets together,' he said.
'It was pleasing, though, that we were resilient when defending our goal-line for the second week in a row.
'We were very clinical with the ball but were not great at controlling the ruck without it, so we need to spend a fair bit of time working on that over the coming weeks.'
Wolves: Flynn Holden; Frank Sergent, James Duffy, Zack Gardner, Jake Thewlis; Joe Hickey, Ewan Irwin; Logan Raughter, Ben Hartill, Luke Thomas, Ewan Smith, Nolan Tupaea, Tom Whitehead. Subs: Oliver Morgan, Tom McKinney, Isaac Reid, Joe Bajer. 18th man: Daniel Regan