Warrington Wolves 32-18 Toulouse Olympique: Highlights, player ratings and talking points

Warrington Wolves took on Toulouse Olympique tonight at the Halliwell Jones Stadium live on Sky Sports.

Warrington started like a house on fire, crossing through Oliver Holmes and then Connor Wrench in the opening 15 minutes.

Toulouse appeared as though they were flagging early on, but the French side managed to claw their way back into proceedings through a Corey Norman effort from a scrum.

And, Warrington were shellshocked when Eloi Pelissier was handed a try after Lambert Belmas had the ball ripped out on the line by Thomas Mikaele just minutes before the break.

Stefan Ratchford added a penalty on half-time to make it 18-14.

Joe Bretherton was sinbinned three minutes into the second-half for pulling Stefan Ratchford back as he went to put down a George Williams kick, but the Wolves only managed to capitalise nine minutes later through Connor Wrench.

Ratchford missed the conversion as the two sides were locked at 18-18, but the Wire halfback added a penalty to make it 20-18.

And, following a sinbin to Harrison Hansen, Wire added another after Matt Dufty crabbed across the line before sending George Williams over.

Warrington had just enough time to cross again through Ben Currie to round off the scoring at 32-18.

Highlights

Oliver Holmes’ try was a thing of beauty; he followed up Matty Ashton’s try to perfection.

Matty Russell and Chris Hankinson’s tackle on Connor Wrench forced the latter into touch.

Matt Dufty’s crabbing run to send George Williams over was superb.

Talking points

1. Warrington collapse

Warrington were in a commanding 12-0 lead up until the half-hour mark. Then they collapsed once more as Toulouse fought back to lead 18-14 at half-time. Three tries in eight minutes for Toulouse proved the incredible collapse.

2. Penalties killed Toulouse

Toulouse were superb until a certain period after half-time killed them completely. Too many penalties were conceded and the French side were the victim of their own downfall. Joe Bretherton was sinbinned for a professional foul whilst Harrison Hansen was yellow carded for mouthing at referee Chris Kendall. Their ill-discipline really hurt them.

Warrington Wolves

36 Matt Dufty – 9
23 Connor Wrench – 7
3 Peter Mata’utia – 7
34 Jake Wardle – 7
5 Matty Ashton – 6
1 Stefan Ratchford – 7
7 George Williams – 7
15 Joe Bullock – 8
9 Daryl Clark – 7
20 James Harrison – 7
11 Ben Currie – 7
35 Matty Nicholson – 5
12 Oliver Holmes – 9
Substitutes
14 Jason Clark – 7
16 Danny Walker – 6
19 Robbie Mulhern – 9
37 Thomas Mikaele – 6

Toulouse Olympique

27 Olly Ashall-Bott – 8
2 Latrell Schaumkel – 7
4 Mathieu Jussaume – 6
21 Chris Hankinson – 6
25 Matty Russell – 7
6 Corey Norman – 8
31 Tony Gigot – 8
8 Romain Navarrete – 6
28 Nathan Peats – 6
35 Daniel Alvaro – 7
12 Dominique Peyroux – 7
16 Joe Bretherton – 6
13 Anthony Marion – 6
Substitutes
10 Harrison Hansen – 5
14 Eloi Pelissier – 9
23 Justin Sangare – 6
29 Lambert Belmas – 6