Just a week after the two sides met in the nation’s capital, Warrington Wolves and London Broncos met again in the Challenge Cup, this time at the Halliwell Jones Stadium as London tried to put the previous weekends hammering out of their minds and focus on the slim chance of cup progress.

London had been given a thirty-eight-point start on the coupon and if you fancied a flutter ten you could get 100/1 on a Broncos win, there was zero chance of an upset and every potential that it could be a cricket score in Warrington’s favour.

Warrington made a couple of changes to last week, but it was a fundamental shuffle in the pack for London in the hope of bolstering up round fives paper thin defence.

The game was just two minutes old when Warrington opened the scoring after Lee Kershaw failed to deal with a high kick towards the in-goal area and Josh Thewlis took full advantage to score. Stefan Ratchford opened his personal account for the day with the boot for a 6-0 lead.

On nineteen minutes Warrington went down the middle with Jordy Crowther taking the final pass to go in under the sticks. Ratchford added the conversion for 12-0, London not really getting a look in.

A charge by Danny Walker, in torrential rain, down the centre of the field set up another Warrington attack which saw Rodrick Tai wrongfoot his tackler and make it to the line to use his strength to push over. Ratchford was unable to convert on this occasion.

On the half hour, Toby King chased down a Ratchford kick to outpace the retiring Broncos player, collect the ball, and go in for a simple try. Ratchford was wide with the conversion attempt but at 20-0 the Wolves were already as good as in the quarter finals.

In the dying seconds of the first half a Matt Dufty kick behind the London defence with the ball collected by Matty Ashton to score in the right-hand corner. Ratchford was again wide with his conversion, running at just forty percent in the first half, but the Wolves were 24-0 ahead at the interval.

A delightful Thewlis try was the first of the second forty and took eight minutes of the half to score after he jinked past the Broncos defence after going down the centre of the field. Ratchford added the extras to bring up the thirty points.

It was becoming way too easy for Warrington as Ashton went on for his second on fifty-three from the back of the scrum with the ball moved from right to left and creating an overlap. Ratchford was again wide with his conversion attempt, but all the misses would make no difference to the outcome.

Ashton’s hat-trick score was another wonder try which was made by Toby King who kicked to the wing, the winger collecting the ball on the full and running around the London defence for the best try of the game. Josh Thewlis took over the kicking duties from Ratchford but also missed the target.

Thewlis was the creator of the ninth try and he broke down the right-hand side before stepping and passing inside to Matty Nicholson to go over. Another conversion miss, this time from Thewlis meant that Warrington had now left twelve points on the pitch, it could have been so much more punishing for the Broncos.

Warrington exceeded expectations as they demolished the London Broncos for the second time in six days and sent them crashing out of the Challenge Cup by a massive margin. Warrington scored at will, the back ripping apart their opposition who couldn’t handle the speed or skill as gaps opened across the park. Perhaps this is the year that the Wolves make a charge to Wembley.

Warrington Wolves: Dufty, Thewlis (2T), King (T), Tai (T), Ashton (3T), Ratchford (3G), Hayes, Harrison, Walker, Vaughan, Holroyd, Philbin, Crowther (T).  Subs: Musgrove, Bullock, Powell, Nicholson (T). 18th Man: Wrench.

London Broncos: Walker, Boafo, Bassett, Miloudi, Kershaw, Leyland, Meadows, Kennedy, Davis, Williams, Storey, Stock, Parata. Subs: Butler, Stocks, Hughes, Monk. 18th Man: Macani. 

Half-Time: 24-0.

Full-Time: 42-0.

Score Progression: 4-0, 6-0, 10-0, 12-0, 16-0, 20-0, 24-0 : HT: 28-0, 30-0, 34-0, 38-0, 42-0  :FT.

Lead Exchanges: Warrington.

Referee: Tom Grant.