adamkungl
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Warrington were nothing short of brilliant.
Defence roaming in vicious packs smashing anything that moved, Austin and Ratchford pulling out everything in their bag of tricks to keep St Helens stretched thin. Clark the linchpin of it all and getting the first try to turn the tide. BMM and Philbin really hammering home Walmsley's absence with top notch performances. Hill off on suspension didn't slow them down an inch.
On the other hand, St Helens were already suffering on the injury front but the loss of Walmsley in the warm-up and Percival mid-game were too much to handle. With players out of position all over the shop, Warrington's fast paced offload game really unsettled them and took a lot of sting out of their defence. Fages and Grace might be their most dangerous backs but I feel like the 2 of them don't get involved enough when the momentum isn't going their way. Lomax of course was involved in everything and was a constant threat until the end. Thompson, Lees, Taia put good efforts in but it wasn't enough to stop the blue and yellow tide.
Hot take time - the return of Gareth Widdop at halfback will not improve Warrington. The Ratchford-Austin combination is hugely effective. Widdop's playmaking ability is severely overrated.
Widdop should come in at fullback, unfortunately at the expense of the exciting Matty Ashton. But he's only 21 and can slot in anywhere in the backline when opportunities come up.
3 points, hard to go past Blake Austin. Just constantly had the defence guessing, high involvement, strong kicking.
2 points Ratchford, just as good.
1 to D Clark
but it could easily have been BMM, Philbin, Currie
Also gotta say, the 5 games I've watched so far have all been great, with big crowds and quality rugby. Really enthusiastic start to the season in England. Pity the dopey clubs have spent the last 2 weeks drawing self-inflicted negative attention with their sooking about Folau.
Defence roaming in vicious packs smashing anything that moved, Austin and Ratchford pulling out everything in their bag of tricks to keep St Helens stretched thin. Clark the linchpin of it all and getting the first try to turn the tide. BMM and Philbin really hammering home Walmsley's absence with top notch performances. Hill off on suspension didn't slow them down an inch.
On the other hand, St Helens were already suffering on the injury front but the loss of Walmsley in the warm-up and Percival mid-game were too much to handle. With players out of position all over the shop, Warrington's fast paced offload game really unsettled them and took a lot of sting out of their defence. Fages and Grace might be their most dangerous backs but I feel like the 2 of them don't get involved enough when the momentum isn't going their way. Lomax of course was involved in everything and was a constant threat until the end. Thompson, Lees, Taia put good efforts in but it wasn't enough to stop the blue and yellow tide.
Hot take time - the return of Gareth Widdop at halfback will not improve Warrington. The Ratchford-Austin combination is hugely effective. Widdop's playmaking ability is severely overrated.
Widdop should come in at fullback, unfortunately at the expense of the exciting Matty Ashton. But he's only 21 and can slot in anywhere in the backline when opportunities come up.
3 points, hard to go past Blake Austin. Just constantly had the defence guessing, high involvement, strong kicking.
2 points Ratchford, just as good.
1 to D Clark
but it could easily have been BMM, Philbin, Currie
Also gotta say, the 5 games I've watched so far have all been great, with big crowds and quality rugby. Really enthusiastic start to the season in England. Pity the dopey clubs have spent the last 2 weeks drawing self-inflicted negative attention with their sooking about Folau.
