Warrington Wolves strengthened their hopes of a top-two finish ahead of the end of the Super League season with a straightforward victory against a St Helens side whose fallacies were brutally exposed once again.
Sam Burgess’s side were far too good for the Saints once again in 2024, with this the third time in as many occasions they have triumphed over their local rivals. The Wolves are now just two points behind second-placed Hull KR with two rounds remaining and while top spot is out of reach, second is vital heading into the playoffs.
That would guarantee a free passage through the opening week of the playoffs and requiring just one win to reach Old Trafford, with that semi-final guaranteed to be at home. And the Wolves will now fancy their chances of hunting Hull KR down after a routine victory that underlined the respective title chances of both the Wire and the Saints.
While Warrington look well-equipped to go deep into the playoffs, the Saints face a battle just to make it. They have never missed a playoff series in Super League history but will end the weekend level on points with the side in seventh after another grossly underwhelming display here.
They led 2-0 early on thanks to a penalty from Jon Bennison but failed to score another point all afternoon. Laboured in attack throughout, the side who won four straight league titles between 2019 and 2022 could now miss out on the top six altogether this season.
Bennison’s penalty was after a yellow card for Warrington’s Lachlan Fitzgibbon, before St Helens’ Matty Lees was also sin-binned for a challenge on the Wolves’ Josh Drinkwater. And the hosts then opened the try-scoring as an error from the Saints led to Matty Ashton breaking away down the left to make it 6-2.
That lead was then extended shortly before half-time as George Williams’ offload led to Jordan Crowther capitalising to dive in under the posts, with Josh Thewlis’s goal making it 12-2 at the break. And in reality, the Saints were that underwhelming that Warrington had to do little to strengthen that lead after the restart.
after newsletter promotion
There were only four more points scored in a second half which never really got going. In Warrington’s case, it didn’t need to. They came from the boot of Thewlis, who added two routine penalties to put further daylight between the sides and ensure victory for the Wolves.
