The U19's got off to a poor start in their 2016 season at a very cold Victoria Park today. The game was won and lost in the first 20-25 minutes as Wire managed to creep offside at the ptb, fail to find touch with free kicks, fail to kick the ball 10m at the start, and also make a range of other messy errors. Widnes were therefore gifted a long time with the ball with (something like) 5-6 sets to our one at one point in the game. They made good use of it to score two converted tries, and in a game that finished 16-19 it was the deciding factor. Probably the most disappointing aspect of the defeat was that it was down to very basic rugby league skills and ensuring you 'play the percentages'.
The two standouts for Wire were Harvey Livett, who seems to have returned to centre, and Morgan Smith. Livett scored a hat-trick of short range tries, two of which were fashioned by Smith. He also kicked two conversions in a tricky wind, to ensure he scored all the points (greedy lad). He is big, strong, and determined near the line, and also got through a lot of tackling. I think he needs to be playing at a higher level really. Morgan Smith has moved on from last year and was the playmaker, taking on the line and giving some sharp passes. His (end of set) kicking game was also good with one 40:20. Although big things were expected of him last year he seemed to struggle with the step up to U19 level and his small stature didn't help. He is still only 17 and I thought he did much, much better in this outing.
Other notables were James Jones (BR) who worked hard, and Pat Moran. Oh, and the new stand and pitch at Vic'y Park were excellent. I can recommend the beautiful toilets as well, which I used liberally. I think Latchford Albion are using the ground as their home turf. A really good facility for Warrington, well done to the council.
All just IMO
