George Williams’ golden drop goal takes Warrington past St Helens

Warrington Wolves will travel to Hull KR for the right to feature in the Super League Grand Final after Sam Burgess's side survived an incredible playoff tie to end St Helens' season and take a step towards Old Trafford.

The two sides could not be split after 80 minutes, with Jon Bennison's last-gasp try for St Helens coupled with Mark Percival's stunning touchline conversion making it 22-22 and sending the tie to golden point extra time. However, the Wolves held their nerve when it mattered most to ensure they progressed to week two of the playoffs and the Saints were eliminated in spectacular fashion.

Having already had one drop goal attempted blocked, the England captain, George Williams, stepped up when it mattered most to nervelessly kick the winning point and set up a winner-takes-all showdown at second-placed Hull KR next Friday. The other semi-final will see Leigh Leopards face local rivals Wigan Warriors.

There was sheer drama all evening in Warrington , right from the very first tackle, when Tommy Makinson dropped the kick-off for St Helens. Three tackles later, the Wire had opened the scoring when Toby King exploited a gap in the Saints' right edge to make it 4-0.

At that stage, you wondered if a St Helens side who had been brittle confidence-wise for weeks would crumble. But instead, they grew into proceedings and dominated the majority of the first half and by half-time, they had the lead an absorbing tie. The visitors went ahead when Makinson produced a world-class, one-handed finish in the corner, with Percival converting to make it 6-4.

Percival then took centre stage with a wonderful try to double the Saints' lead before Makinson crossed again to make it 16-4 in the blink of an eye.

Crucially though, Percival struck a post with his third conversion attempt – leaving the gap between the sides at two scores, rather than three.

And how Warrington would capitalise on that. Having spent much of the opening 40 minutes camped in their own half, they halved the deficit when Matty Ashton scored in the corner another well-worked move from the Wolves, with Josh Thewlis's conversion making it 16-10 in favour of the visitors. Given the dominance they had enjoyed, you suspected the Saints would have wanted more at that stage.

You felt the first error of the second half would be decisive: and it came when a penalty for Warrington sprung them into a promising position. They duly obliged to take it as a stunning pass from George Williams put King over for his second, and Thewlis converted to level the scores.

But the drama was nowhere near over. With both sides pushing for a winner, the Saints made a shocking error deep inside their own half, as Daryl Clark's stray pass was collected by King, who teed up Ashton for his second of the evening to put the Wolves ahead by six.

However, just when it looked as though the hosts would hold out after a frantic final ten minutes, the Saints scored a remarkable try when, after keeping the ball alive, Bennison touched down in the corner and incredibly, Percival kicked the touchline conversion to send it to golden point extra time.

But when it mattered most, Williams delivered the winning drop goal and ensured it was Warrington, not the Saints, who kept their season alive for another week at least.