Second-half Wakefield comeback stuns Harlequins
Jamie Rooney scored two tries for Wakefield
Also In The News
|
Ken Livingstone has moved into a lead in polls with less than a week to go until polling day for the London mayoralty. |  |
Saturday, 26, Apr 2008 08:46
Wakefield Wildcats staged a memorable second-half comeback to beat Harlequins 24-20 in the Super League match at the Belle Vue.
A Jamie Rooney try gave the Wildcats the lead, but Harlequins hit back with four first-half tries from Danny Orr, Matt Gafa, Michael Worrincy and Rikki Sheriffe to take a 20-6 lead at half-time.
But the home side came back in blistering fashion in the second-half and scored 18 unanswered points to claim the win. Wakefield scored three tries in the second-half and added two conversions and a penalty.
Harlequins were sluggish in possession at the start of the game and paid the price as a superb off-load from Ryan Atkins allowed Rooney to crossover. Danny Brough added the extra two points.
The rest of the half was completely about Harlequins as they earned a substantial lead. Orr took advantage of some poor Wakefield defending to wriggle through tackles and score a try. Rob Purdham was successful with his conversion attempt.
Wakefield then gave away a penalty near their try-line and Harlequins made them pay as Matt Gafa dived into the corner on the final tackle. The game looked to be over after only 21 minutes after Harlequins scored two further tries through Worrincy and Sheriffe.
But the Wildcats came out roaring in the second-half. First Rooney got onto the end of a Brough grubber-kick to score his second try of the match.
The impressive Brough was instrumental in the next try as well as his kick through allowed Tony Martin to score and bring the Wildcats to 16-20.
Sherrife then knocked-on almost on his try-line and this gave Wakefield the chance to score the decisive try of the game. After a sustained amount of pressure, Sam Obst dived in from dummy-half to complete the comeback. Brough added a penalty to make the game safe.