Warrington Wolves Under 19s v Newcastle Thunder Under 19s

The U19's had a big win against Newcastle Thunder - who I presume were the 'NE Academy' last year. Mr Briers decided to rest a number of the third years including Kay, Philbin, Jones, Whalley and Jay Neath. However Newcastle were still short of a bit of muscle in the forwards and struggled to contain a lively Wire side that contained both Morgan Smith and Harvey Livett in the halves. Ellis Robson made his debut and it was good to see Brad Stanway on the bench after a very long injury spell - I don't think he has played since June last year. I think most Wire players put in a very good performance, but tactically they missed a few opportunities as Newcastle got the numbers wrong at times when defending. With something like 30-0 at half time the confidence started to flow in the second half and the side looked much more team-like with the ball doing the work rather than individual players. Newcastle also struggled to clamp the ball in the tackle resulting in a lot of offloads and subsequent holes in the defence. By the last quarter of the game Wire were starting to run in a lot of scores against a very game, but tired opposition.
As I said, I thought all the players had a pretty good game. Liam Aspin took the FB position in the absence of Kay and I liked his ball handling skills and timing (passing) when he joined the attack. Pat Moran was given a bit too much space and made very good yardage. Charlie Phythian picked up two tries as did Lewis Turner on the wing. It was good to see Stanway picking up a try towards the end. But perhaps as expected it was Livett and Smith that caught the eye. Morgan bagged four tries and seven conversions whilst Harvey managed only one conversion from a series of difficult touchline attempts, plus one try. They both sparked the attacks, finding holes for players to exploit or backing up moves.

Next week it will be Saints at home, which will be a very different challenge.