GEORGE Williams kicked the winning drop goal in golden points extra time as Warrington Wolves defeated St Helens in a Super League play-off thriller.
After seeing a first attempt in the extra period charged down by Morgan Knowles, Williams stepped up on the second occasion and struck the ball between the posts to secure a 23-22 win and set up a semi-final trip to Hull KR.
St Helens had forced extra time with a dramatic late try, expertly converted from the touchline by Mark Percival on the hooter.
That levelled things up after Warrington had fought back from 16-4 down to lead in what would turn out to be their first play-off victory since 2018.
Warrington got off to the perfect start when, after Tommy Makinson had uncharacteristically dropped the kick-off, Toby King crossed for the opening try inside two minutes.
The rest of the half belonged to the unfancied St Helens, who only just scraped in to the top six and maintain their record of appearing in every Super League play-off series.
Makinson squeezed over on 12 minutes, converted by Percival to give them the lead, and then Percival powered over from left centre, finishing well against Rodrick Tai and Josh Thewlis to make it 12-4 after 24 minutes.
Catalans-bound Makinson grabbed his second try with a powerful run from close to the line, just about retaining control of the ball to ground it.
Perhaps crucially, Warrington regained a foothold in the game before half-time. A George Delaney error gifted field position, and from it a bit of magic from Williams saw him take the ball to the line and offload to wrong foot the defence and Matty Ashton stepped inside to score.
Jonny Lomax failed with a late drop goal attempt, but Saints had a 16-10 half-time advantage.
Warrington started the second half with their tails up but had to stay patient, it was 14 minutes until King raced in for his second try and Thewlis’ conversion levelled things up.
Ashton capitalised on a Saints error to touchdown to give Warrington the lead and they had 13 minutes to hold on.
They looked to have done enough, until in the closing stages, St Helens pushed the ball left and Bennison squeezed in at the corner. Percival, to his credit, nailed the most difficult of conversions under the most pressurised circumstances to force extra time, but it was a mistake by him in extra time that would ultimately cost Saints.
Warrington had wrestled control of field position through a penalty, and though Williams was denied with his first drop goal attempt, Percival sliced a kick out on the full which gave the Wolves a full set inside Saints’ half.
This time they made the most of their tiring opponents to give Williams enough room to strike the decisive blow and take them within 80 minutes of a Grand Final at Old Trafford in Sam Burgess’ first season in charge.
Warrington: Dufty, Thewlis, Tai, King, Ashton, Williams, Drinkwater, Yates, Walker, Musgrove, Bateman, Nicholson, Currie. Subs: Powell, Harrison, Vaughan, Philbin.
St Helens: Welsby, Makinson, Mata’utia, Percival, Bennison, Lomax, Dodd, Walmsley, Clark, Lees, Whitley, Batchelor, Knowles. Subs: Bell, Paasi, Delaney, Burns.
