Wolves devour Cougars
Warrington scored 80 unanswered points against Keighley as they romped into the last 16 of the Challenge Cup on Sunday.
Last Updated: 08/05/11 5:42pm
Warrington scored 80 unanswered points against Keighley as they romped into the last 16 of the Carnegie Challenge Cup on Sunday.
Nineteen-year-old scrum-half Gareth O'Brien crossed on his debut for the Wolves and stand-off Lee Briers racked up 32 points in the 80-0 victory at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
But it was England centre Ryan Atkins who took top try-scoring honours with a first hat-trick since he joined the club from Wakefield two years ago.
The Wolves went into the clash missing half a dozen regulars, with Brett Hodgson, Chris Bridge, Joel Monaghan, Ben Westwood and Louis Anderson rested, and Richie Myler injured.
But any hopes the Cougars' may have had of causing a historic upset were shattered after only a minute when Atkins crossed for his first.
Further scores from Simon Grix, Paul Wood, Mike Cooper, Atkins again and Briers took the home side into half time with a 34-0 lead.
O'Brien scored almost straight from the restart and Atkins completed his hat-trick before Rhys Williams raced over for the Wolves' ninth try.
Matt King stretched the lead to 58-0 and Michael Monaghan crossed in the 58th minute before sub Rhys Evans touched down after a mistake by Gavin Duffy.
Briers went in for his second and converted with five minutes to go and Williams bagged his brace with a long range effort to end a miserable afternoon for Keighley.