Super League Memories
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This is a look at some highlights of Warrington Wolves during the Super League era.
Do you remember one balmy summer’s evening in Super League I when Saint Helens were in town for an absolute thriller? Richard Henare scored a fantastic eighty-yard try with a peach of a move off the base of the scrum involving Sculthorpe and Willie Swann. Jon Roper in the same match outpaced Anthony Sullivan to score in the corner. Lee Penny was off for tackling Allan Hunte round the nose and Warrington were denied by the soon-to-be Super League champions. Final score 27-26.
Were you there in Super League II at home to the doomed Paris side? It was a tense game. The breakthrough looked to come for Warrington when the speedy Tongan winger Mateaki Mafi raced sixty meters unopposed to casually put the ball down with one hand. Yeah, you guessed it. He dropped the ball down over the try line. He was also promptly dropped from the first team and was released at the end of the season. The Wolves won the match in the dying seconds through a John Hough try.
The World Club Championship was a big eye opener in 1997. It was a demonstration of how far behind the English game had fallen form the far superior Australians and the Kiwis. It also brought some fantastic players to English shores. The likes of Daley, Langer, Roberts, Barnett all came into the England. But it was one game in particular that sticks out in the memory. Warrington v Auckland Warriors. By the final whistle the Wolves had been soundly beaten but they certainly didn’t go down without a fight. The match featured a historic Warrington try that went round the world and back again. It was just before half time Briers broke, he flipped it inside to Tongan centre Salesi Finau, who rode one tackle to pop the ball up to Samoan Willie Swann. He superbly found Penny who finished by flicking the ball up to kiwi scrum half and Kelly Shelford, who sailed under the sticks. Sky pundit Stevo hailed it as ‘one of the greatest team tries of all time.’ It was Warrington’s last game in the tournament.
Warrington Wolves may never have won the Super League and the team has not always set the world alight with flair and glory but they do have the bast fans in the world. With the club seemingly on the brink of greatness many more memories are still to come.
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