by Greg Nixon Picture MKS Photography
WARRINGTON Wolves’ women secured their place in the quarter-finals of the BetFred Challenge Cup with a convincing 64-10 home win over the London Broncos.
Michelle Davis, playing in her more usual role as full-back after starting at stand-off in the previous two games, ran in her second hat-trick in as many games as Wire racked up a solid 32-6 lead by half-time.
Flying wingers Sammy Simpson and Georgia Sutherland also crossed for hat-tricks of their own in front of a healthy crowd at the Asics Stadium in Victoria Park. Wire’s player of the month for April, Kacy Hayley, also rounded off another strong-running performance with a well-deserved try late in the second half.
The only concern for Warrington was a knock to Armani Sharrock – already playing with stitches in a mouth injury suffered in the Cup win at Castleford a fortnight ago – which saw the captain stretchered off in the final minute.
Simpson opened the scoring in the seventh minute as the home team punished a Broncos’ knock-on in their own 20. Davis missed the conversion from the left of the sticks but made up for it five minutes later when she finished off a strong run from second rower Hayley. The successful conversion made it 10-0.
A couple of minutes later and it was 16-0 as Davis ran in from distance, but the next two tries were all about the strong running of Sutherland as first she broke down the left to feed second rower Katie Williams who was held up just short. From the resulting play-the-ball, the ball was moved out to the right for Simpson to bag her second.
Almost from the restart, Sutherland latched onto the ball from inside her own half and powered over to give the home side a 26-0 lead following the conversion from Davis.
After an effort from Shannon Stephens – celebrating her 19th birthday – was harshly ruled out for a forward pass, the Broncos came back into the game with some strong running from substitute Siobhan Longdon-Hughes. And it was from the visitors’ first visit into the Warrington 20 with ball in hand that Emily Hughes forced her way over, the conversion making it 26-6.
Any chance of further inroads into the lead were thwarted from the restart when a break by Emily Baggaley was followed up by Davis to complete her hat-trick just before the break.
It was the same story for much of the second half with Wire controlling the game and snuffing hopes of a London fightback with a length of the field try from Simpson following early pressure from the visitors. Lauren Roberts, who had taken over the kicking duties, added the extras then powered over herself after Broncos had been guilty of knocking on form the restart.
When Kirsty-Lee Griffiths finished off a smart move on the left for London, it seemed to breathe new life into the home team with Sutherland and Simpson both completing their hat-tricks either side of efforts from Williams and Haley to take the final score to 64-10.
With two wins under their belt in Group D, and a clash against St Helens in their next Cup game, Michelle Davis said: “The top two teams go through and we are looking forward to the game against Saints.
“It was good to be out there and have the freedom to play from full-back again. We played the way we needed to play today and showed some resilience.
“It was disappointing to concede two tries but we go again.”
Warrington Women’s Super League head coach Lee Westwood said: “We fixed some things in the week and they came right today.
“The important thing is that we are heading in the right direction.”
Warrington: 1 Michelle Davis 18 Shannon Stephens 4 Emily Baggaley 5. Sammy Simpson 21 Georgia Sutherland 6 Lucy Eastwood 7 Charlie McGraw 8 Armani Sharrock 14 Grace Ramsden13 Amy Daniels 11 Katie-May Williams 12 Kacy Hayley 16 Georgia Westwood
Subs 20 Ellie Jelves 24 Abigail Latchford 17 Lauren Roberts 22 Claire Mullaney 18th player 26 Amy Boardman 19th player 15 Emily Downes
Sammy Simpson scoring her hat-trick.
Picture MKS Photography
