Warrington Wolves

Warrington Wolves ticked all the boxes for Steve McNamara on Friday night as they thumped Widnes Vikings 50-12.

Winger Josh Thewlis was the star of the show as he set the Wire away with a first half hat-trick against the Championship side, with Warrington naming what is close to a fully fit squad for the friendly.

The promising Ewan Irwin and Luke Thomas got over, too, before Leon Hayes, who has struggled with injuries over the last year or so, and Ben Hartill touched down.

Deacon Connolly and Mike Butt spared Widnes’ blushes somewhat before youngsters Tommy Rhodes and Ewan Smith completed the scoring on the night for the primrose and blue outfit.

There’s a lot of pressure on Warrington this season after what was a deeply disappointing 2025 campaign, but the manner of the victory will certainly have have fans looking ahead with optimism with their next pre-season outing coming against Leigh Leopards on January 30, a week before Warrington’s third round Challenge Cup clash.

“The game was notably faster, it was a fast start to the game and it took us a little bit to break Widnes down but I thought we were really composed and controlled and we were reasonably organised. A really good work out for both teams,” assistant coach Steve McNamara said.

“I thought in attack we were pretty methodical. We scored some nice tries but we did the basics really well.

“It’s really boring to talk about completion rate in a pre-season trial game when you’re trying things but with all the changes that we made, we were at 89 per cent in the first half with probably our strongest team which was clear, but 100 per cent in the second half with all the changes and the kids that go on.

“What you’re looking for in pre-season is for the players to have clarity in terms of what their job and what their role is in the team. If you get that, it minimises errors. On a cold night, that’s pretty impressive.

“We showed a fair bit of flair during the game as well and scored some really nice tries.

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“Leading into the next challenge which will be Leigh, it gives us something really substantial to work with and create that extra energy and momentum going into what is going to be a tough season.”

On Josh Thewlis’s exploits and the new players in the Warrington squad, McNamara added: “It’s great to see Josh score a hat-trick like that, he trains extremely well. This is my first experience of working with the whole group of players and they’ve been good.

“All the players were solid, the new players were solid and they all showed glimpses of what they can do. Overall it was a good night for us.”