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Hull KR 24 Warrington Wolves 25: Extra-time trouble as Hull KR suffer late heartache
Warrington pulled off a stunning extra-time victory in a breathless Carnegie Challenge Cup quarter-final to move to within 80 minutes of a place at Wembley.
Stand-off Lee Briers was the Wolves' hero with a drop goal five minutes into sudden-death added time, but only after he had failed with no fewer than four earlier attempts.
Hull KR stand-off Paul Cooke also failed with a drop-goal attempt in one of most dramatic finishes to a match in Challenge Cup history.
There was nothing to choose between two of Super League's form sides throughout a rousing match at a sun-kissed Craven Park.
Warrington trailed 22-12 after an hour but finished the stronger side to maintain their revival under England coach Tony Smith and looked to have won the tie in normal time after scoring two tries in five minutes to edge 24-22 ahead.
Michael Dobson then tied the scores for a third time with a 78th-minute penalty to set up the dramatic finish.
"I don't know if either team will have been happy with their performance," added Smith.
"We're obviously happy with the result but at half-time I thought we were pretty ordinary and Hull KR weren't as good as I've seen them in recent times.
"It was pretty scrappy. There were some pleasing aspects but it wasn't until we went two scores behind that we started to defend with a bit of gusto.
"Before that - in the first 60 minutes - we were on the back foot. There was still 20 minutes to go so we didn't feel like we were out of it by any means and we came home really strong."
Hull KR coach Justin Morgan admitted losing to the golden point was an agonising way to go out of the competition.
"It's a tough one," he said. "I know players were out on their feet and to play extra-time might have been prolonging the agony. I suppose golden point is the way to go.
"It's difficult because players' minds are fuzzy at that stage in the game but, because it's cup rugby, you have to have a winner.
"We're disappointed. I thought the effort was great but our execution at times was poor. Both sets of players put in a huge effort in tough conditions.
"It was a great game but we came up a little bit short. We mostly probably should have put the game to bed but credit to Warrington, who stayed alive and put in a huge effort for the last 12 minutes or so."
Hull KR, their confidence high from a six-game winning run, made the brighter start and caught the Wolves cold with a try after only three minutes.
A long pass by Rovers stand-off Paul Cooke released winger Peter Fox and centre Kris Welham was on hand to score.
The visitors put themselves under pressure after a couple of handling errors by Simon Grix but Rovers were unable to build on their flying start.
After conceding two goal-line drop-outs, their defence cracked on 16 minutes when Warrington loose forward Vinnie Anderson took Michael Monaghan's inside pass to crash over by the posts.
Chris Bridge's goal levelled the scores and it stayed at 6-6 until half-time, although both sides had their moments on attack.
The best chance fell to Warrington substitute Ben Harrison, who looked all over a scorer after taking an Adrian Morley offload only to be denied by Shaun Briscoe's last-ditch tackle.
The Wolves suffered a blow when Monaghan went off nine minutes before half-time but they went in front three minutes into the second half when Grix got Matt King charging down the wing and the supporting Jon Clarke was inside to finish off.
The final pass looked forward but Rovers immediately struck back with two tries in five minutes to regain the lead.
Impressive front rower Clint Newton took Dobson's short pass to stride over for a deserved score and second rower Ben Galea pounced on Cooke's kick to the line after the bounce had eluded full-back Richard Mathers.
Dobson maintained his accuracy to kick Rovers into an 18-12 lead and the Robins looked to have clinched the win with a glorious 50-metre try from Jake Webster on the hour.
Loose forward Scott Murrell shaped to kick on the last tackle only for the Warrington defenders to hold back and he found the space to release Daniel Fitzhenry.
He juggled with the ball before finding Dobson and his long pass sent Webster racing over for a thrilling score that made it
22-12.
However, that was the signal for the Wolves to launch their amazing late fightback. King gathered Briers's kick to the corner to touch down and the scores were level when hooker Mickey Higham got Morley into a gap and he combined with Lee Briers to get Bridge over.
Bridge kicked his fourth conversion to edge his side in front but when Warrington were caught offside in front of their own posts Dobson levelled the scores for a third time.
As time was running out, a knock-on by Walker gave Warrington the perfect position to land a drop goal, but Briers's kick barely got off the ground.
He then had three other chances in extra time before finding the target to send the 1,000 visiting fans into ecstasy.
Hull KR: Briscoe, Fox, Webster, Welham, Colbon, Cooke, Dobson, Fozzard, Fisher, Newton, Gene, Galea, Murrell. Substitutes: Aizue, Fitzhenry, Wheeldon, Walker.
Warrington: Mathers, Riley, Bridge, Grix, King, Briers, Monaghan, Morley, Clarke, Carvell, L. Anderson, Westwood, V. Anderson. Substitutes: Higham, Wood, Rauhihi, Harrison.
Referee: P Bentham (Warrington).
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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