No worries for Warrington
Warrington booked their place into the fifth round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup with a clinical 44-18 win over Championship outfit Keighley.
Last Updated: 15/04/12 6:42pm
Warrington booked their place into the fifth round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup with a clinical 44-18 win over Championship outfit Keighley.
Tony Smith's Super League side touched down eight times against their part time opponents, with young hooker Brad Dwyer amongst the scorers.
Joel Monaghan, Ben Westwood, Chris Hill, Rhys Williams, Chris Riley, Ben Harrison and Paul Wood also crossed with Lee Briers adding six conversions.
The Wolves were on their game from the off and, having opened a 22-0 lead in as many minutes, quickly dashed any hopes the Cougars might have had of springing a giant-killing as Featherstone had done against Castleford 24 hours earlier.
While they were rarely at their sparkling best, Warrington still had far too much for Jason Demetriou's side.
Playing up the Cougar Park hill in the first half, the visitors were over within seven minutes, when Briers and Burke combined to send Monaghan over out wide.
Westwood them steamed onto a short ball to crash through two tackles and score, a feat that was repeated by prop Hill soon after.
Commanding lead
When Briers' long pass allowed Matty Blythe to send Williams in at the corner, the Super League outfit led 22-0.
Keighley's best chance up to that point had seen Richard Jones knock on a Paul March kick over the line, but they did respond just before half-time - again it was a March kick that created the try, allowing former Wolves winger Richie Barnett to leap the highest and touch down.
But any hopes of a Cougar comeback were dashed within seven minutes of the restart when, after back-to-back penalties, the promising Dwyer darted over from dummy half.
The Wolves then eased to victory, crossing twice more in the third quarter. A repeat set allowed Riley to finish a smart handling move in the right-hand corner, before Harrison charged down a Sam Obst kicked and raced 70 metres to the line.
Front-rower Wood got on the scoresheet as he produced a typically strong effort from close range with ten minutes remaining.
But arguably the try of the game went to the home side in the closing stages. James Hathornthwaite broke down the right, kicked inside for Barnett, and Jode Sheriffe then sent scrum-half Obst under the posts.
Obst then rounded off the scoring in the final minute after another March kick, allowing the Championship side to finish on a high.
