Warrington Hold Off York To Maintain 100% Start
6 March 2026
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York (18) 30
Tries: Jones-Bishop, Balmforth, Mata'afa, Vaughan, Harris Goals: Richardson 5
Warrington (22) 38
Tries: Stone 2, Thewlis 2, Taylor-Wray, Williams, Currie Goals: Sneyd 5
Warrington Wolves kept their 100% start to the Super League season by holding off a perky York Knights side in an electric high-scoring encounter.
The 30-38 scoreline consisted of 12 tries shared between the sides, with a manic 40-point first half.
Josh Thewlis and Sam Stone made the distinction for the visitors, contributing a pair of tries each.
There was a special minute for Ben Currie too, who scored his 100th shot for Warrington in the second half.
The Wolves moved level with Wigan Warriors at the top of the table on 6 points, with York in ninth having won two out of their four games so far.
With a quarter of an hour on the clock, it looked as though the very first Super League conference in between these two sides would be an extremely one-sided affair.
Stone, Thewlis and the outstanding Cai Taylor-Wray provided the visitors the ideal start with three fast scores, as the Wolves twice barged through the home defence either side of Taylor-Wray collecting a neat pass to review in the corner.
Fifteen minutes later, Warrington, exceptionally, found themselves behind following a storming resurgence from the home side.
Ben Jones-Bishop got the Knights on the board, before Denive Balmforth went over following smart hands from full-back Tom Mata'afa, who scored a shot of his own minutes later to finish the turnaround.
The lead altered hands again minutes later on, Stone scoring his 2nd shot to send out the Wolves in 22-18 at the break.
The 2nd half mirrored the very first, as the hosts came out of the traps slower than their more knowledgeable Super League challengers. George Williams crossed to score before Currie raised his century of tries for Warrington, from under the posts.
Still the hosts declined to accept defeat, as Paul Vaughan, versus his former side, and Liam Harris claimed attempts to bring the Knights within 2 points of their challengers.
Thewlis repeated with 10 minutes to go, and Marc Sneyd transformed the bonus as the Wolves saw out victory.
They go back to action at Goole Vikings in the Challenge Cup on Saturday, 14 March, while York face Keighley Cougars in the very same competition.
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'We anticipate better from ourselves' - reaction
York head coach Mark Applegarth informed BBC Radio York:
"Fair play to Warrington, congratulations to them. They started truly strong in both halves and we got caught.
"I was truly happy with the spirit we showed and how we got back into it, however there were some important lessons for us in all of that.
"If you score 30 points in a game, that need to be enough to win it, however I thought we left some soft experiments with there.
"I thought we looked fantastic on the front foot, however the momentum shifts at this level are huge, and these teams can publish some huge ratings quite quickly.
"We're not here to be delighted losers so it does sting a bit that we got ourselves back into the game and let it escape us once again. We expect better from ourselves."
York: Mata'afa; Jones-Bishop, Wood, Williams, Nofoaluma; Richardson, Harris; Martin, McShane, Vaughan, Field, Dee, Thompson.
Interchanges: Griffin, Balmforth, Va'a, Sangare.
Warrington: Taylor-Wray; Thewlis, King, Hopoate, Smith; Williams, Sneyd; Yates, Walker, Byrne, Harrison, Stone, Currie.
Interchanges: Powell, Sipley, Philbin, Tanginoa.