WARRINGTON Wolves’ reserves had their hands full on Saturday afternoon against an experienced and powerful Hull FC outfit.

Former NRL forwards Franklin Pele and Jayden Okunbor were among the players in the Black and Whites’ side at Victoria Park, and Wire reserves head coach Ryan O’Brien admitted the physical edge they helped to bring proved the difference.

Pele, who had played off the bench during the Super League clash between the sides less than 24 hours earlier, scored twice as Hull won 34-20, turning around a 16-12 half-time deficit in the process.

Joe Bullock, who was 18th man for Warrington in Friday’s Round 10 game, was among the try-scorers for the second string alongside Cai Taylor-Wray, who was also named in the 21-man squad for what would have been his senior debut.

Winger Frank Sergent also scored twice but Wire fell to their second defeat of the reserves campaign.

“We struggled to contain Hull physically in defence – we allowed their outside backs to skip across our line, the ruck was too quick and we conceded far too many offloads,” O’Brien said.

“They clearly had a tactic to get Franklin Pele at our young right edge and got a lot of success doing that.

“There was plenty of effort and some good sequences of play from us, but for some of our players there was also a realisation of the size of the jump to that next level.”

Wolves: Cai Taylor-Wray; Frank Sergent, Zack Gardner, Zac Bardsley-Rowe, Jake Thewlis; Joe Hickey, Adam Whalley; Bobby Shingler, Ben Hartill, Joe Bullock, Stephen Antrobus, Nolan Tupaea, Tom Whitehead. Subs: Scott Parnaby, Logan Raughter, Jamie Reddecliff, Noah High. 18th man: Peter Scott