Warrington 10

Blackburn 23

DINO Radice continues to perform miracles at Ramsgreave Drive and says this Saturday’s home clash with title contenders Northwich should hold no fears for Blackburn.

Blackburn’s stunning 23-10 victory at Warrington last weekend, their ninth success in 10 league starts, has propelled Radice’s team into fourth place in the North One West table, the club’s highest position for many years.

“It was the complete performance from start to finish and I can’t praise them highly enough,” said Blackburn’s head coach.

“We had to field a back line that nobody would have recognised with so many senior players unavailable, but the young lads who came in were brilliant.

“The forwards were also outstanding, and when the backs saw how well they were performing they were inspired too.

“They said: ‘We are not going to let these guys down,’ and they dug even deeper to make sure that we won.”

Radice added: “In many ways we have surpassed our goals for this season, but we want to continue this run and see how high we can finish.

“We’ve just defeated a much fancied Warrington side in their own back yard by a margin of 13 points, so we are looking forward to the next one, and to try and get another positive result.”

Early in the game against Warrington Burn rode their luck, but as the match progressed the more comfortable they looked, showing composure and retaining possession well.

Warrington applied pressure from the start and they were soon helped as Danny Booth was shown a yellow card after two minutes.

The home side continued to press but Blackburn made them pay when Phil Baines kicked a penalty from just outside the 22 in the ninth minute.

While ‘Burn saw little of the ball, they managed to score the first try of the game, Baines going over the line and Blackburn led by eight points.

Warrington hit back with a penalty of their own though but Baines successfully kicked another three points in front of the posts to put Blackburn in a commanding position at the break.

The second half saw another early yellow card, this time to a Warrington forward.

Unlike their opponents ‘Burn were able to take advantage of their numerical supremacy with an early try.

Blackburn pinned Warrington in their defensive third, kept the ball tight before releasing it wide to Luke Philipedes. He still had work to do but he did well to beat his man and score in the corner.

Baines then kicked well to slot the conversion from the touch line making the score 3-18.

And when ‘Burn scored another try on 64 minutes the points were heading back to Blackburn.

The visitors had been on top in the scrum all game and from a five metre scrum they drove over the line allowing Corey Logan to control the ball at the back and touch down to score.

Baines, though, was unable to kick the extra points.

That miss sparked a mini revival from the Cheshire side who attempted to reduce the arrears in the closing stages of the match.

Blackburn’s defence continued to hold Warrington at bay but eventually the pressure told.

From a line out Warrington passed the ball wide, a grubber kick was put in and as the ball bounced over the try line a home player won the foot race to fall on it and score.

The conversion was added, but Blackburn showed the growing strength in the squad with a superb victory.