Halifax Panthers suffer defeat in the Scott Grix testimonial game against Wakefield Trinity
Match report: Halifax Panthers 24 - Wakefield Trinity 52
Match report: Halifax Panthers 24 - Wakefield Trinity 52
Halifax Panthers got their Betfred Championship pre-season underway at the Shay Stadium with the Scott Grix Testimonial game against his former club Wakefield Trinity.
Halifax signed eleven new players in the closed season and nine of those were making their debuts in this game. Some timing issues and forced plays showed signs of this in parts.
The Panthers drew first blood as Corey Aston raced forty metres following an impressive one on one ball steal to score underneath the posts, with a Joe Keyes conversion taking the Panthers Six nil up four minutes into the game.
The lead was short lived as Liam Hood scooted from acting half and burrowed his way over the line, Bradley Walker with the conversion to level up the score for Wakefield.
A barrage of tries in quick succession from Wakefield saw the score quickly open up.
Halifax went down to twelve men following the sin binning of Jacob Fairbank 18 minutes into the game following a late hit on kicker Edward Battye. Wakefield took full advantage with Jai Whitbred crashing in under the post for this first of two tries.
Halifax clawed back a try with Ben Tibbs scoring in the corner coming from a looping pass from Joe Keyes, with the ball fumbling through the hands of a Wakefield player aiming for the interception.
Wakefield continued to turn the screw up to the half time whistle with try after try. The visitors went into the changing rooms at half time with a massive score line of 12-34
The start of the second half saw Halifax with all of the possession and pressure which eventually saw Elliott Morris crash under the post following some majestic orchestrating from scrum half and man of the match Joe Keyes.
The Panthers managed to fight their way back into the game to bring the scoreline to a difference of just ten points, with tries from Elliott Morris, and Joe Keyes.
Fatigue took hold towards the end of the game as Halifax started to struggle to keep up with the pace which lead to some gaps appearing in the defensive line.
As the cold winter air in West Yorkshire drew in, Wakefield remained red hot on the points and capitalised on a tired Halifax squad and continued to rack up the points right until the final whistle.
This game had everything you’d expect from a pre-season friendly, big hits, disjointed plays, fatigue, stand out performances and plenty of points for Simon Grix to work on before the season starts.
I caught up with man of the moment Scott Grix after the game to hear his thoughts on the game and his retirement.
“It only dawned on me on Friday, with how busy we've been and training everybody as normal, Friday night I thought I've got to actually play a game in a couple of days! I missed it immensely if i'm honest, I probably a struggle a little bit in terms of I think I could play forever, I'd like to play forever, retirement was the right thing to do at the time. So to get out and get amongst it a little was great. If it were up to me I’d be Peter Pan and play forever.
When asked about the temptation to play again Scott said
“It depends on what Simon says, but I think we've done the retirement thing and put that to bed a bit, I'm pretty competitive so it was good to be around the boys today”
"We've recruited very well, for the amount of people we've brought in, the cohesion has picked up a lot quicker then we thought it would. It may need a few more weeks to get in there but for us internally we've got our own thoughts on where we’ll finish, what we’ll do and what we’ll strive to do but in general to get where we need to be we needed a bigger squad which is why we got it. We could've gone with a twenty three man squad maybe me pulling my boots on again but the competition is the main thing, we've got enough players to make it competitive all the time rather than anybody being a shoe in so i'm looking forward to see how that progresses. You travel to work with your main rival for your position, its a weird one, you’re best mates but they also want your spot as well so its good”
"We've recruited very well, for the amount of people we've brought in, the cohesion has picked up a lot quicker then we thought it would. It may need a few more weeks to get in there but for us internally we've got our own thoughts on where we’ll finish, what we’ll do and what we’ll strive to do but in general to get where we need to be we needed a bigger squad which is why we got it. We could've gone with a twenty three man squad maybe me pulling my boots on again but the competition is the main thing, we've got enough players to make it competitive all the time rather than anybody being a shoe in so i'm looking forward to see how that progresses. You travel to work with your main rival for your position, its a weird one, you’re best mates but they also want your spot as well so its good”
The Panthers next game sees them on the road away to Salford Red Devils as they look to put right a few wrongs from today's game.
Halifax Panthers
L. Jouffret, L.Walmsley, G.Worthington, J.Arundel, J. Saltonstall, C.Aston, J.Keyes, A.Tangata, B.Moore(C), E.Morris, C,Oakley, M. Garside, J.Fairbank.
Interchanges: E.Barder, W.Calcott, S.Grix, T.Gwaze, B.Tibbs, K.Wood, B.Kavanagh, K.Larroyer, Z.MCcomb, B.Tagg)
Tries:
C.Aston 4’
B.Tibbs 38’
E Morris 51’
J.Keyes 56’
Goals: J.Keyes 4/5
Wakefield Trinity
M.Jowitt, T.Lineham, R.Lynne, C.Hall, T.Johnstone, B.Walker, J.Miller, Y.Aydin, L.Hood, E.Battye, J.Pitts, S.Adebiyi, J.Whitbread.
Interchanges: T.Minns, L.Murphy, J.Batchelor, H.Bowes, R.Davetanivalu, L.Kay, P.O’Donovan, I.Shaw, R.Butterworth, K.Poching, K.Tanginoa
Tries:
L.Hood 10’
C.Hall 15’
J.Whitbred 20’ , 77’
J.Miller 24’
T.Lineham 30’
M.Jewitt 32’
I.Shaw 66’
R.Lynne 72’
Goals: B.Walker 8/9
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