Wolves rip Rovers apart

Matt King: hat-trick for Warrington

Warrington returned to the top of the Super League table with a 46-16 victory over Hull KR at Craven Park.

The Wolves had been shocked at home by Salford last week - although there were extenuating circumstances due to Origin call-ups - and made Rovers pay in emphatic fashion.

Warrington scored nine tries - including four in a devastating first-half 10-minute spell - with Matt King crossing for a hat-trick.

The game was over as a contest by the time the Robins got on the scoreboard when Blake Green touched down after 51 minutes.

Wolves took 20 minutes to get into their groove as both sides were guilty of making simple errors early on.

It was a Hull KR mistake that led to the first score when replacement prop Liam Watts conceded a penalty three metres from his own line.

On the first tackle, Simon Grix brushed off Craig Hall to score, with Brett Hodgson converting.

Straight from the kick-off Warrington worked the ball from the left-hand touchline to the right, with Rovers scrambling back into their line. Kris Welham slipped off a tackle early in the move that ended with King scoring in the right-hand corner.

Hodgson failed with his conversion attempt, but a third try followed soon after following a brilliant move. Lee Briers, Hodgson and Chris Bridge all worked the ball outside with speed and accuracy for King to double his tally.

Rovers were desperate to get their hands on the ball, but they were forced to wait even longer as the Wolves showed their hunger for more points.

They successfully managed to suck Rovers' right-hand edge into the centre of the pitch, creating an overlap for Ryan Atkins to stroll over in the corner. Hodgson made no mistake with his kick to open up a 22-0 lead by the half-hour.

Rovers did eventually get the ball and in the final 10 minutes of the first half forced two goal-line drop outs, but they were unable to unlock the solid Warrington defence.

Error

The start of the second half summed up Michael Dobson's game as he made an early error to give Warrington the initiative.

Dobson's attempted clearance kick was blocked moments later by Michael Monaghan, picked up by Bridge and scored by Lee Briers.

Hodgson missed the conversion but his side were far from finished and after Westwood was held up, Briers kicked to Atkins, who slipped the scoring pass outside for Williams to extend the lead to 30-0.

Green finally gave the frustrated home fans something to cheer as he crossed in the 52nd minute with Dobson adding the extras.

From the restart, Liam Colbon could not stop the ball bouncing out of play giving Warrington another golden opportunity to add to their score and Atkins went over with Rovers short of defenders on their right-hand side.

Rovers rallied with two consolation tries in four minutes. Colbon went over in the right-hand corner before Scott Taylor scored on his first start. Dobson converted one of the two kicks to cut Warrington's lead to 30-16.

Any hope that might be the start of a Rovers fight-back were extinguished as King completed his hat-trick three minutes later, taking Briers' high kick in the right-hand corner.

Richie Myler then completed the scoring, grounding Monaghan's clever kick to wrap up an impressive return to form for the Wolves.