The Lions edged out a youthful Warriors outfit by outlasting them with some late scores plus some fine kicking from Chris Hankinson in their final friendly before the Championship season begins.
SWINTON LIONS 28-20 WIGAN WARRIORS
The Lions edged out a youthful Warriors outfit by outlasting them with some late scores plus some fine kicking from Chris Hankinson in their final friendly before the Championship season begins.
It may have been friendly in title but the game at times was anything but, Dual Registration partners the clubs may be, but a large brawl ended with a period of twelve a side rugby midway through the second half!
Indeed the niggle started from very early on, a high tackle from Oliver Partington on Josh Barlow garnered the Lions resultant field position, which nearly saw George Tyson, Gabe Fell and Marcus Webb send in the latter.
The Wigan cubs bit back, Josh Woods’ super flat pass met a speeding Macaulay Davies; he made short work of two tacklers but knocked on grounding the ball.
Swinton gradually took the ascendency, Hayden Hansen bombed a good chance after Luke Waterworth was spritely across the line, but it was a Barlow offload to the Lions hooker diving through a crowd of players that opened the scoring.
Great hands were then showcased down the Swinton left, as Tyson outmuscled the cover, released Webb who sent over the supporting Matt Sarsfield, Hankinson was proving a reliable kicker and the Lions would need that as the Cherry and Whites fought back.
Mike Butt beat Joe Brown to a smart James Worthington grubber kick before following a tap, Jack Higginson sent in Liam Forsyth at the flag, Jake Shorrocks missed the extras.
The remainder of the first half tailed off a little bit, Samy Kibula made a tremendous run to the line but failed to keep grip of the ball. Wigan made up for it soon afterwards, Jake Shorrocks releasing Morgan Smithies to score by the posts to tie the game up to just two points at the break.
The second half opened up inauspiciously, where it did genuinely feel that a warm up game before tempers roused it once more and an incident on the touchline saw more fists flying. Wigan’s Higginson and Swinton’s Sarsfield were invited to spend ten minutes on the sidelines by referee Tom Grant.
Both teams embraced the open space, a bullet pass from Lewis Heckford sent in Worthington at the corner and at the other end, after Danny Ansell scooped up a loose pass and a penalty for Swinton, it was Hansen who unlocked the Warriors with a swerving dart at pace for the line.
With both teams back at full strength, another great effort from Davies saw him hauled down short but Kibula barrelled over on the next play. Josh Woods took over kicking at the break and converted off the upright here to take the lead for Wigan.
The lack of goal points kept the dogged Lions in it and when Mark Nicholson crashed over, Hankinson again converted to hand control back to Swinton.
Fatally for the Warriors, an attempted short kick off almost blew back behind the half way line. Swinton kicked for touch to get position, from which Tyson released Elliott Caine scooting for the corner to decide matters.
Jeff Tyldesley reporting from Heywood Road.
TEAMS
SWINTON: Gabe Fell, Mike Butt, Chris Hankinson, George Tyson, Marcus Webb, Danny Ansell, Jack Hansen, Josh Barlow, Luke Waterworth, Kyle Shelford, Chris Worrall, Matt Sarsfield, Hayden Hansen
Subs (all used): Omar Djalout, Mark Nicholson, Connor Taylor, Elliott Caine, Aaron Hall
Tough hit out today and a good end to pre season. Big thanks to @WiganWarriorsRL they are the standard to aspire to and are quality people and professional from top to bottom. @Swinton_Lions appreciate our partnership and wish you well for 2018 #thanks
