Warrington Wolves ratings in Challenge Cup final with Marc Sneyd masterclass not enough for glory

Warrington Wolves were beaten in the Challenge Cup final for a second year running, losing 8-6 to Hull KR at Wembley on Saturday afternoon.

These are our Wire ratings…

Matt Dufty – 8

Dufty dealt well with pretty much everything that KR threw at him and proved a threat going forward. A dropped ball at the first carry from a scrum blotted his copy book, but we haven’t held it against him too much. Forced off late on through injury.

Josh Thewlis – 8

Thewlis grabbed the try that looked to have won it just before half-time. Again, didn’t really put a foot wrong on the day. Warrington so unlucky here.

Rodrick Tai – 7

Tai is so strong in defence, and was again here with some huge hits delivered throughout. If we had to offer a criticism, he might have delivered more with the ball in hand at times under the arch.

Toby King – 8

More Wembley heartbreak for King and for Warrington. The type of bloke you want to see win silverware. His experience shone through and it looked like the Wire had done enough for so, so long.

Arron Lindop – 5

Ultimately, Warrington lost this game because they allowed KR to score a try. Lindop was at fault, and he didn’t have a great game defensively having let a goal-line drop-out sail past him earlier in the second half. The youngster will learn from this, we’re sure.

George Williams – 8

Williams didn’t look undercooked at all having rushed himself back to be fit for this final. That’s the biggest compliment we can give him, and it’s a big one, trust us.

Marc Sneyd – 10

Wow. Just wow. Sneyd won the Lance Todd Trophy despite being on the losing side, which tells you the story of today. He was unplayable and kicked KR to near death. Came close to a try of his own in the second half, pulled off a 40/2o and pulled the strings throughout. Not many will have performed as well as he did on this stage and ended up being beaten.

Luke Yates – 9

Two big stints from Yates, whose tackle count we’d love to see. Immense at times.

Sam Powell – 9

We thought Powell was excellent during his two stints, offering a great deal offensively as well as defensively. Another who it’s yet more Wembley misery for.

Paul Vaughan – 8

Like Yates, prop Vaughan was great throughout. He did exactly what Sam Burgess would have wanted for the duration of his two stints out there.

Lachlan Fitzgibbon – 7

Got through the final unscathed after an injury worry last week, and offered more to Warrington than we’ve seen him do for a while.

Adam Holroyd – 8

Another here in Holroyd who got through a ridiculous amount of work. You can’t help but feel for him and Wire.

Ben Currie – 8.5

We don’t do half marks usually, but we’ll make an exception here because we think Currie deserves more than an eight. He was absolutely superb, and we have no words for him finding enough in the tank 70 minutes in to make a lung-busting break. Had Wire gone in on the back of that, it’d have been game over.

James Harrison (Interchange) – 9

As he did last week, Harrison came off the bench and had a huge impact. His tackle count will be sky high, and he helped earn a good number of goal-line drop-outs by driving KR players back.

Jordy Crowther (Interchange) – 6

Came close to a try out of dummy-half right before Thewlis went over for his try. We didn’t really see much else from him, though

Joe Philbin (Interchange) – 7

Philbin knocked on close to his own line shortly before half-time, but got away with it, and grew into the game during his stint from there on.

Stefan Ratchford (Interchange) – N/A

Thrown on at full-back 73 minutes in when Dufty got injured, so it wouldn’t be fair to give Ratchford a rating.