It was a very warm, summer’s day, at the Halliwell Jones Stadium in Warrington.
Wakefield Trinity’s Physical Disability team had been invited to play the curtain-raiser against Warrington Wolves Foundation PDRL team featuring Adam Hills, the ‘Last Leg’ host.
Coming off the back of a 44-10 victory over Leeds Rhinos Foundation, Wakefield Trinity PDRL were confident of putting in a good shift against the Wolves.
It was a flowing, end to end game for the most part in strong heat that undoubtedly played its part as Anthony Seward scored every single point for the Wolves as they handed Trinity their first defeat. 26 points consisting of 5 tries and 3 goals gave Seward, from Devon, a Man of the match award, and well deserved too.
Despite two tries and a try-saving tackle on Seward on his Trinity debut, John Humphries Jnr missed out on the Trinity MOM award to Callum Parkinson. Parkinson played in a boxing headguard to protect the metal plates in his head and was a constant thorn in the Wolves side with some big tackles and elusive runs.
Lee Briers, a Warrington favourite, played as an able-bodied player but with ‘red shorts’ due to the neck injury he retired with. He arguably made a vital ‘tag’ when Darren Dean broke the Wolves line but was chased down by Briers in a footrace to the line.
Chris Hall grabbed the remaining try for Wakefield having had several contentious decisions go against him.
Keith Mason and Alan Hunte were on hand to guide Wakefield along with Shaun Briscoe, Lee Briers and Jerome Guisset for Warrington as the former-players rolled back the years.
It was a deserved Warrington victory as Wakefield could find no way of preventing Seward from scoring at what seemed like every touch of the ball.
At half time of the main game we saw the World’s first Learning Disability Rugby League game, watched by 6,507 people, which also went the way of the Wolves as they scored two tries to Wakefield’s one. Andrew Perry was the first Trinity player to score in LDRL history as he shrugged off several would-be taggers on his way to the line.
Andy Smith, Disability Lead at Wakefield Trinity Community Trust, said, “We’d like to thank Warrington Wolves Foundation and the club for allowing us to play a huge part in a tremendous occasion. Every player really enjoyed themselves infront of a huge crowd and although we were disappointed with the results, they were all winners out there.