Dewsbury Celtic 44 Warrington Wizards 22.

WARRINGTON Wizards suffered a second-half collapse as they went down 44-22 at Dewsbury Celtic in the Northern Rail Cup on Saturday.

Wizards built up a commanding 22-4 half-time lead but in the proverbial game of two halves they shipped in 40 unanswered points after the break as the home side bounced back to record an unlikely victory.

Warrington opened the scoring in the second minute when centre Danny Shaw landed a penalty after Celtic had been caught offside 40 metres out, and then three minutes later hooker Chris Jaffery was held just short and a quick play the ball saw loose forward Liam McCarthy put centre Harry Archer over in the left corner.

Wizards stretched their lead moments later when stand off Alan Kilshaw chipped ahead and the ball bounced awkwardly for the Celtic full back and his opposite number David Yii was on hand to collect and score. Shaw landed the conversion.

Dewsbury got off the mark when good work from hooker Adam Carroll put second row Ben Hardacre over for an unconverted try but then Wizards responded with a try from second row Matt Wilson.

Wizards increased their lead on the half hour when a power play on the last tackle saw the ball swept out wide for substitute Mark Robinson to put winger Mike Grady over in the left corner, and then right on the stroke of half time Shaw landed a penalty to give his side a deserved 22-4 interval advantage.

The Celtic revival started two minutes into the second half when substitute Martin Poutney crashed over from close range, and then the game was turned on its head when Celtic full back Richard Tillotson went over for a hat-trick of tries in a devastating 10-minute period.

He converted each of the tries himself to put his side in front for the first time at 26-22.

The home side were now on an unstoppable roll and added further tries from loose forward Scott Green, a fourth from Tillotson and one from Carroll. Tillotson converted the latter two tries and also landed a penalty goal in the final minute.

The Wizards man of the match was awarded to scrum half Steven Smythe, who was well supported by Simon McEvoy, Liam McCarthy and Scott Davidson.

Wizards: David Yii; Mike Grady, Danny Shaw, Harry Archer, Stuart Pirrie; Alan Kilshaw, Steven Smythe; Luke Worsley, Chris Jaffery, Simon Mcevoy, Scott Davidson, Matt Wilson, Liam McCarthy. Subs: Mark Robinson, Lee Smith, James Mather, Chris Campbell.