WARRINGTON WIZARDS 26 BRAMLEY BUFFALOES 40 – Wilderspool, Saturday
Bramley turned the form book upside down with a stunning victory at high flying Wizards.
The visitors produced a brilliant first half display to stun the hosts and despite a brave second half fight back it proved in vein as the Buffaloes were left to celebrate their best performance of the season.
Buffaloes opened the scoring in the tenth minute when quick passing from left to right in the Wizards twenty metre area saw the ball swept through six pairs of hands for centre Aaron Blake to score in the right corner.
Jake Doyle added the conversion and three minutes later a penalty to Bramley put them close to the Wizards line and hooker James Doyle burrowed over from dummy half to score on the right.
Bramley continued their superb start when great work by scrum half Ben Pitts saw him offload to Omar Al-Rawi who went over at the side of the posts, Jake Doyle goaling.
Just after the midway point the Wizards had a try disallowed for a forward pass and from the resulting scrum Buffaloes substitute Hafeez Yesufu raced 80 metres to score between the posts, Pitts adding the conversion.
Wizards got on the scoreboard six minutes before the break when back to back penalties put them on the Bramley line and a bullet pass from Paul Reynolds put Christian Taylor over in the left corner to make the half time score 22-4.
The hosts started the second half strongly and three minutes into it half backs Alan Reddecliff and Warren Ayres created space for full back Danny Gregory who linked into the line and put Ryan Jones over on the right.
Four minutes later, from a scrum on the Buffaloes 20, the ball was swept across the line to Gregory who scored wide out on the left. Ayres converted the latter via the right hand upright.
Wizards continued to press and a superb 50 metre break from deep inside his own half by hooker Hayden James split the Buffaloes defence, a quick play the ball allowing Gregory to spot a gap from dummy half and race 40 metres to the posts.
Ayres converted to narrow the gap to just two points but almost immediately Bramley stemmed the tide when a high kick into the in-goal area on the last tackle by James Doyle was fumbled by the Wizards and he pounced on the loose ball to score and Jake Doyle converted.
Just before the hour the Wizards responded again when James Rosson took the ball from the base of a scrum and brushed off three defenders to score under the posts; Ayres adding the extras.
But another handling error by the Wizards in their own in-goal area, this time from a chip through by Pitts, saw Dave Parker gleefully pounce on the ball to score.
Pitts added the conversion to re-establish an eight point cushion for his side.
Buffaloes finally put the game out of the Wizards reach 13 minutes from time when a high cross field kick on the last tackle by Pitts was collected by winger Karl Linley who scored on the left.
Jake Doyle converted to complete a very impressive and fully deserved win for the visitors.
WIZARDS
1) Danny Gregory, 2) James Rosson, 12) Sean Conway, 4) Ryan Jones, 5) Christian Taylor, 6) Alan Reddecliff, 7) Warren Ayres, 8) Dan Stubbs, 9) Hayden James, 10) Christian Froggatt,11) Mike Rosson, 3) Mike Stout, 13) Paul Reynolds, Subs (all used); 14) Craig Woolvine, 15) Martyn Bradshaw,16) Ben Walker, 17) Mike Leicester
Tries: Taylor (34), Jones (43), Gregory (47, 50) J. Rosson (59)
Goals: Ayres 3
BUFFALOES
1) Rodney Menon, 2) Andrew Staniland, 3) Aaron Blake, 4) Tom Langton, 5) Karl Linley, 6) Omar Al-Rawi, 7) Ben Pitts, 8) Dave Parker, 9) James Doyle,20) Jake Doyle, 11) Benoit Rogers, 12) George Clark, 13) Robin Wilkes, Subs (all used); 14) Graham Nash, 15) Hafeez Yesufu, 16) James Woods, 17) Steven Gill
Tries: Blake (10), James Doyle (13, 53), Al-Rawi (17), Yesufu (22), Parker (63), Linley (67)
Goals: Jake Doyle 4, Pitts 2
Men of the match:
WIZARDS – Hayden James
BUFFALOES – James Doyle
Half time: 4-22
Referee: Darren Hayes