NORTH WALES CRUSADERS 6 WIDNES VIKINGS 116
JAMES GORDON, Stadiwm CSM, Sunday

WIDNES secured a new record win and Danny Richardson a new club record for points in a match as they ran up more than a century at North Wales.

The Vikings ran in 20 tries, including three for Richardson, who ended up with 48 points after landing 18 conversions.

Both records surpassed those achieved by the Widnes of 2007 in a 90-4 victory over Doncaster, in which Gavin Dodd registered 38 points.

The Crusaders had an unexpected look at the Widnes line in the opening minute after Frank Sergent knocked on from the kick-off, with the winger having to stop Sam Littler close to the line on the last tackle.

But Widnes didn’t have to wait long for their first posts, Matty Fozard breaking through from deep and finding Kieran Taylor to score.

Mike Butt added the first of his hat-trick of tries before Crusaders had another look at the line after a knock-on on half way without success.

Widnes then started to flex their muscles and by the midway point of the first half led 32-0, thanks to further tries from Richardson, Fozard, Sergent and Butt’s second.

The home side looked forlorn behind the posts, but then for 15 minutes, they managed to dig in and frustrated Widnes. A high bomb by Ben Fisher was caught by Littler and required Owens to prevent Joe Bradley finding his way to the line, and then another Fisher kick saw Butt trapped in goal by Matt Welham.

It took the ball going through lots of hands from a Nathan Connell break to get the next score, finished by Richardson four minutes before half-time and then Widnes went back to back through Sergent to lead 44-0 at half-time.

Sergent got his hat-trick early in the second half, and then when Adam Lawton burst through to set up an Owens try, Widnes turned on relentless mode. For 20 minutes, Crusaders never touched the ball other than Fisher kicking off from half-way as Widnes broke through at will.

Danny Langtree got on the board after a penalty for a late tackle on Richardson, and then Deacon Connolly’s break set up Max Roberts, before Fozard pierced through again to create a try for Lewis Hall.

The final quarter was dominated by Connell, who put Richardson under the posts to bring the on-loan York halfback within two points of Gavin Dodd’s 19-year record set against Doncaster in 2007.

Another Connell break set up Owens under the posts to enable Richardson to level the record and he broke it on 65 minutes after another Roberts try. 

Connell then scored three consecutive Widnes tries as Crusaders simply couldn’t get near his free running, his first coming from a clever Tom Gilmore chip kick.

But in amongst that, Crusaders finally got the ball in hand and scored a try of their own, as Bradley against his hometown club snared an interception off Gilmore and raced 40 metres to rapturous applause to make it 98-6.

Connell’s next two to complete his hat-trick were followed late on by Wales international Butt’s hat-trick score in front of a 733 strong crowd, bolstered by a sizeable Widnes following, with Richardson converting all 12 of the second half tries.

GAMESTAR: Danny Richardson wrote his name in to the history books for his hometown club, scoring 48 points.

GAMEBREAKER: The ease with which Matty Fozard set up the first try would have rang alarm bells for North Wales, but the game was done by 20 minutes.

MATCHFACTS

CRUSADERS
21 Lewis Fairhurst
2 Kye Jacobson
3 Matt Welham
4 Sam Littler
5 Joe Bradley
27 Dom Horn
7 Ben Fisher
26 Connor Terrill
9 Wil Fearnley
15 Oliver Polec
11 Bailey Dawson
16 James Thornton
13 Brad Clavering
Subs (all used)
6 Trent Ruddy
8 Ralph Wood
19 Stevie Watson
25 James Shields

Tries: Bradley (69)
Goals: Bradley 1/1

VIKINGS
23 Nathan Connell
2 Mike Butt
3 Jack Owens
27 Deacon Connolly
24 Frank Sergent
17 Danny Richardson
7 Tom Gilmore
21 Jay Chapelhow
14 Matty Fozard
28 Jack Houghton
25 Kieran Taylor
11 Sam Wilde
13 Nick Gregson
Subs (all used)
12 Max Roberts
15 Lewis Hall
16 Danny Langtree
19 Adam Lawton

Tries: Taylor (3), Butt (6, 19, 79), Richardson (10, 36, 58), Fozard (12), Sergent (16, 39, 45), Owens (47, 61), Langtree (51), Roberts (54, 65), Hall (56), Connell (67, 74, 77)
Goals: Richardson 18/20

SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 0-12, 0-18, 0-24, 0-28, 0-32, 0-38, 0-44; 0-50, 0-56, 0-62, 0-68, 0-74, 0-80, 0-86, 0-92, 0-98, 6-98, 6-104, 6-110, 6-116

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Crusaders: Matt Welham; Vikings: Danny Richardson

Penalty count: 0-8
Half-time: 0-44
Referee: Josh Pemberton
Attendance: 733