WARRINGTON Wolves head coach Armani Sharrock had nothing but praise for the effort and desire of her young team despite their 50-4 defeat to the Leeds Rhinos in the Betfred Women’s Super League.

The Wire, missing several first team players through injury or unavailability, put up a spirited performance but ultimately, the beaten Challenge Cup finalists proved too strong at Victoria Park.

 “As disappointing as it is to lose, there are so many positives this week to take from the game,” Sharrock said

“There is a lot for us to build on from this week and we have found something we can believe in to take forward this week in training.”

One of the positives was Georgia Bogg, making her debut from the bench, who had the unenviable task of fronting up England international Amy Hardcastle, and the performance of Hannah Roberts, the on-loan centre from St Helens.

Abi Johnson also impressed her coach with her speed on the edge and carries in field.

The home side got off to a steady start in the first few minutes, with some strong carries from props Grace Burnett and Abi Latchford and a clever kick from Charlie Magraw that just beat winger Rebecca Nixon into touch.

But it was Leeds who opened the scoring in the fifth minute when centre Caitlin Beevers scored the first of her hat-trick of tries, cutting inside to go under the sticks after the Rhinos had worked the ball wide. Hooker Keara Bennett converted to give the visitors a 6-0 lead.

Just minutes later, Leeds extended their lead when Jenna Greening put Hardcastle through a huge hole in the home defence. Bennett again added the extras.

Wire took this as the cue to come back into the game and more than held their own for the next 10 minutes, but just couldn’t find that pass or kick to open up the Rhinos defence.

Mistakes and some ill-discipline in conditions that were more akin to November than July also didn’t help the cause.

And it was a knock-on from full-back Grace Wray that led to Leeds’ next score, with Liv Whitehead first going on a probing run from the scrum then scrum-half Caitlin Casey getting the wall out wide for winger Evie Cousins to force her way over in the corner.

Further mistakes were punished by the Rhinos as first Shona Hoyle crashed over between the posts, then Ruby Bruce exploited a huge gap in the Wire defence made it 26-0 at half time.

And any hope of the home team getting back into the game was snuffed out in the opening moments of the second half when Beevers went on a weaving run down the left then cut inside to score and stretch the lead to 32-0.

This was the signal for the home side to start spreading the ball out to wings rather than taking it down the middle and enjoyed a good spell of possession on the Leeds line which included Latchford being held up on the line.

When young hooker Jasmine Wilson knocked on at the resultant play the ball, Leeds swept up field for Beevers to complete her hat-trick.

Beevers struck again just moments later when Wray and Nixon failed to deal with a high kick from Casey, then Hardcastle completed her own hat-trick either side of a Helena Turner score for The Wire after Cousins had dropped the ball close to her own line to make the final score 50-4 to the visitors.

Sharrock added: “We were a little disillusioned by the defeat against Huddersfield last week but this week we found a little bit more to believe in and we can build on that in training this week.”

Wolves: Grace Wray; Abigail Johnston, Hannah Roberts, Albany Coates, Rebecca Nixon; Louise Fellingham, Charlize Magraw; Abi Latchford, Ellie Jelves, Grace Burnett, Katie May Williams, Emily Turner, Helena Turner. Subs: Jasmine Wilson, Megan Condliffe, Lucy Johnson, Georgia Bogg. 18th: Lauren Ellison