As two of Warrington’s greatest, Paul Cullen and Ben Westwood were hardly shrinking violets.

Fan favourite Cullen earned the nickname ‘Psycho’ for his aggressive defence during a 15-year career in which he made 350 appearances for his hometown club.

Westwood, meanwhile, was known as the ‘Wrecking Ball’ for his integral role in the side that won three Challenge Cup finals between 2009 and 2012.

Yet as much as they clearly relished the bone-jarring collisions, both admit they may have met their match in wheelchair rugby league.

That growing sport is something they both now have experience of having joined a team of past Warrington players to face one of the club’s wheelchair sides in a promotional game.

The Wolves were admitted to the Wheelchair Super League last year and arranged the fixture earlier this month to raise funds and awareness for their side.

“It was frightening,” Cullen, who went on to coach the club after hanging up his boots in 1996, told the PA news agency. “They didn’t shirk anything and there were some very big hits.

“We were all experienced professionals but this was something else. It was so demanding physically.

“A few of us got knocked out of our chairs but while they just bounced back up we had to get helped back in.

“They absolutely schooled us. We didn’t score a single try. The only thing we were good at was kicking off – and we got plenty of practise at that because they kept scoring!”

As well as Cullen and Westwood, the ex-professionals’ team also featured other past stars including Toa Kohe-Love, Mark Forster and Mike Wainwright.

They were thrashed 24-0 by the Wolves’ wheelchair development side but the result was not the purpose of the exercise.

The wheelchair game gained new popularity with some national TV exposure during last year’s World Cup and Warrington are keen to build on that.

“I enjoyed it and it was good fun,” said Westwood, scorer of 188 tries in his 446-game Wire career. “I would definitely give it another go and hopefully we can be a bit better next time.

“The hits that went in – I was shocked – but, at the same time, I was thinking this is how rugby league should be, even in wheelchairs.

“There were quite a lot of people there. It can only help the sport going forward and hopefully get more people going to watch it.”

A Josh Griffin hat-trick denied Warrington the chance to go back to the top of the Betfred Super League table as they were beaten 30-18 in a tight clash by Hull.

A thrilling final match at Magic Weekend saw Wolves open well, but Hull’s stellar start to the second half which saw them score three tries in 11 minutes turned the game around.

It was a missed opportunity for Warrington, who now sit just behind Catalans Dragons in the table, while Hull continued their good run as they made it four wins in their last five league games.

A persistent spell of pressure inside the Hull 10 metre area saw Warrington draw first blood just three minutes in. A neat high kick from George Williams was held by Connor Wrench and the winger was able to reach over the line to ground the ball, with Stefan Ratchford adding the extras.

The Wolves’ speed on the attack was rewarded in the 12th minute when Williams pounced on a loose pass, scooping the ball up and sprinting to touch down between the posts.

Hull continued to battle and a great move saw Tex Hoy kick across goal, the ball parried down for Danny Houghton to latch on to in mid-air to cross before Jake Clifford converted.

Matt Dufty regained possession for Warrington with an excellent run from a Hull kick, but the Wolves were kept at bay by a solid Hull defence, who made some great last-ditch blocks on their own try-line.

The Black and Whites were unable to make the most of some good chances in the final minutes of the first half, but they were straight on the attack after the restart and nearly had a try through Griffin, who fell just short.

Their energetic start saw Hull score again in the 43rd minute when Clifford’s grubber-kick was chased down by Adam Swift on the wing and he did well to hang on to the ball to cross in the left corner.

The tries began to flow as Hull added another two minutes later after an excellent move saw Griffin find a gap to cut in from the left and go over, giving Hull the lead for the first time in the game.

The second rower then struck again in the 51st minute, getting on the end of Jake Truman’s cross-field kick and spinning around to touch down.

Warrington responded five minutes later with a good string of passes towards the right and Wrench made no mistake charging forward to ground in the corner for his second try of the game.

Griffin completed his hat-trick following a fine team move which saw Hoy break forward from a Warrington kick to reach the halfway line before offloading to Swift, who found Griffin and he powered over.

Hull’s defence continued to show resilience on the try-line to deny Warrington in the final 10 minutes before Hoy added a fifth try for the Black and Whites, bursting through the Warrington defence to seal victory.