Warrington v St Helens 1990-91 Regal Trophy

December 16th 1990 and having eventually despatched Runcorn in the previous round two weeks before hand Warrington came through a hard fought battle to face Widnes in the semi final. The opening ten minutes had a couple of flair ups and Tea Ropati was put into touch as Saints threatened to open the scoring first, but it was three penalties from Chris Rudd that gave Wire a 6 point lead before Ward and Griffiths put Alan Hunte clear on the half way to round Lyon and score the first try. Loughlin belted over the conversion for 6 all. He then missed a penalty right on the hooter to keep the teams drawing at halftime. Two minutes into the second half and on Wire's first set ex Canberra and Oldham stand off Chris O'Sullivan then spotted a gap in the Saints defence to round Connolly and Hunte to score Warrington's first try in the Railway corner. Rudd failed to take the two points this time. 10-6. Shortly afterwards Rudd was put in touch on the flag by Connolly after Kevin Ward's superb effort to chase back did enough to slow the young winger. Wire continued to apply pressure and with 52 minutes gone Kevin Ellis pounced on O'Sullivan's ricocheted kick to make the score 14-6. Rudd failed with the kick again. Loughlin opened Warrington up to put Bailey away under the Railway End posts with the big centre adding the two. 14-12 and game on. As both teams battled out a tough game on a heavy pitch when Bateman and O'Sullivan combined effort on a kick chase stopped Gary Connolly behind his own line, from the drop-out set O'Sullivan and Bateman combined again, this time in attack to send Lyon galloping in on the left. Rudd's conversion from the touchline hit the post as Wire lead 16-12. Wire were still looking to put the game to bed and despite Ellis' scuffed drop goal attempt in injury time Warrington's defence clung on to claim an impressive victory in a hard fought match.