READ IT AND WEEP, SAINTS

St. Helens...22

WARRINGTON Wolves purely and simply beat St. Helens at their own game.

By playing expansive, confident and adventurous rugby they put the world champions on their backside and made sure they stayed there.

The Warrington fans had been waiting a long time for their side to reap revenge for 14 consecutive defeats at the hands of Saints, many of which were by hefty margins.

And reap revenge the inspired Wolves players did in a flambouyant style more associated with the Knowsley Roaders.

Although Saints were missing four regulars, including the highly influential Sean Long and with a Challenge Cup final date a week away, nothing should be taken away from Warrington for their willingness to attack at any opportunity and from anywhere on the park.

The key to victory appeared to be simple - The half backs, Lee Briers and Allan Langer whizzing out long passes to give the centres early ball with space ahead of them to run at.

Langer and Briers clicked in the best way they have all season and if the policy of missing men out with passes to get the ball across the line as quickly as possible is stuck to for the remainder of the season, then there is no reason why the Wolves can not finish in the top five.

Of course there needs to be men willing to run on to those balls and create dummy runners and there was no shortage of players putting there hand up for any of those tasks.

Most notably Alan Hunte and Toa Kohe-Love. Hunte's angled runs, joining the attacking line from full back at the perfect time brought him a deserved hat-trick against his former club.

Kohe-Love too, is running hot, and he displayed all the elements of a great centre in strength, agility, speed and quick thinking to cross three times and create regular in-roads into the crumbling Saints defence.

It was a field day for the centres and wingers with gaps being prised open in front of them by the half backs on every set of six and Ian Sibbit and Rob Smyth also got in on the act scoring two apiece.

None of this would have been possible if the hard-working

forwards had not gained yardage and set up the field position for the backs to tear apart Saints' feeble defence.

All Wolves' forwards played their part in winning the arm wrestle with the bigger Saints pack early on, helped along by Warrington pack governor Andrew Gee, putting the dangerous Paul Sculthorpe firmly in his place.

Each Warrington try was a brilliant one and it created a carnival atmosphere for fans hungry to see such creative and daring rugby, and expectant of more in weeks to come.

And, it should be noted that, despite Saints having players out, Warrington had four players of their own missing from their start-of-the-season squad in Kevin Walters, Tawera Nikau, Lee Penny and Steve Georgallis. Not to mention Dean Busby and Gee leaving the field with injuries.

However, after 15 minutes things did not look rosy for Warrington as Saints held a 16-6 lead.

Early errors by both sides saw Keiron Cunningham score a soft try after Danny Nutley and Steve McCurrie had missed tackles.

Hunte hit back for Warrington, charging on to a superb Langer pass from deep and splitting the Saints defence.

But the good work was undone. An uncharacteristically bad pass by Langer on the second tackle close to his line saw Paul Newlove stroll over with an interception.

Then stand-in centre Steve Hall scurried over from a scrum on Warrington's 10-metre line courtesy of a terribly weak tackle by Hunte.

From that point it was the Warrington show as rampant Wolves ran in nine uninterrupted tries with Briers bang on form with the boot.

Kohe-Love's first try on 18 minutes signalled the beginning of a catalogue of handling errors from Saints winger Anthony Sullivan.

Briers first found the weakness with a cross field bomb which Sullivan spilt and Kohe-Love was first to pounce on the loose ball over the line.

Sullivan's next gift was for Sibbit. After Briers' kick had made the Welsh winger turn and retreat to collect it, he threw an insane pass in front of his own sticks that fell pathetically to the ground and Sibbit gobbled up the gift.

By now it was getting embarrassing and Langer probed further with a similar kick to Briers' first, which Smyth athletically won ahead of both Sullivan and Newlove.

On 31 minutes a bad game got worse for Saints' left hand side. Newlove was sent off for a high tackle on Kohe-Love when, off a Briers inside ball, he looked odds-on to score.

From then on Saints were even weaker although it would probably not have made any difference to the outcome if Newlove had stayed on the field.

One minute before half-time and with a big overlap Langer darted sideways and Kohe-Love made the scum half's decision easy by cutting inside from the centre and taking Langer's inside pass to score form five metres out.

There was no let up from the relentless Wolves as Smyth crossed for his second only three minutes into the new half.

He won the race to touch down a Briers grubber, which ricocheted of a few players' legs.

Kohe-Love's hat-trick was complete by 50 minutes. In typical Toa fashion he intercepted Cunningham's lazy pass and stormed over from 10 metres within Saints' half.

Ten minutes elapsed without a try but Warrington's commitment was continually emphasised by forcing players into touch and with two superb covering tackles by Briers and Jamie Stenhouse when Saints broke down the right in the 61st minute.

Sibbit scored his ninth try of the season in the 63rd minute after, yet again, Briers and Langer combined with searching passes and Dave Kidwell had a hand in freeing up the rangy centre to stride over.

The final insult was Hunte's hat-trick completed in the last 15 minutes.

Hunte's second was a beauty started by Briers, continued by David Highton, who burst through a gap and fed ever-supporting Hunte.

A monster pass directly from acting half back by Langer paved the way for Hunte's hat-trick. Kidwell, revelling in his pack role, burst the defence off a good Briers pass, drew the full back and supplied Hunte.

Tim Jonkers sneaked a last-minute try for Saints which was of absolutely no consequence to the most devastating and cavalier performance Wilderspool has seen from the home side for some time.