WIDNES VIKINGS 40 HUNSLET 12
JAMES GORDON, DCBL Stadium, Sunday

WIDNES recorded their fifth successive victory but had to stay patient against a spirited Hunslet side.

The final scoreline didn’t reflect the effort of the Championship basement boys, particularly in the first half, when despite being on the wrong side of an 8-1 penalty count they only trailed by four.

A neat offload close to the line by Matt Fleming put Jon Bennison over on 13 minutes to open the scoring for the Vikings, who named the same 17 that beat Featherstone last time out.

Lee Gaskell’s kicking game, often going early at both ends of the pitch, helped to keep Hunslet in the contest, as did their hard-working middle unit as Widnes struggled to find any fluidity in attack.

Hunslet got their reward midway through the first half when Bradford loanee Finley Balback ghosted through close to the line after a Widnes knock-on had gifted them field position.

Such was the nature of the game, that Widnes coach Allan Coleman made a rare quadruple change on the half hour mark to try and spark Widnes into life, and it worked as one of the interchanges, Adam Lawton, scattered the Hunslet defence and off the next tackle, a delayed Dec Patton pass put Jake Maizen over.

The visitors otherwise frustrated the hosts. Max Roberts was held up short and Nick Gregson was held up over the line under the posts on the stroke of half time, but Widnes kept their composure.

An error by Jowitt early in the second half put Hunslet under immediate pressure, and eventually it told. It took a solo effort from Jack Owens, fending off his man and scampering home from 30 metres, to break their resolve after five minutes. Gaskell’s risk and reward kicking then backfired as his short kick-off failed to make the 10, and Widnes went back-to-back as Lawton burst through and all of a sudden Widnes had opened up a 16-point lead.

Lawton added his second try on 54 minutes, tackles after Tom Gilmore had been held up over the line by Jowitt after a long-range Mike Butt break.

Hunslet were still having the odd look at the Widnes line, Maizen holding Ethan Wood up over the line, and their scrambling defence at the other end was still frustrating Widnes. Lawton, Bennison and Roberts all went close on the same tackle, before Matty Fozard sneaked over from dummy-half.

Zach McSwiney repaid the favour with a similar score at the other end on 69 minutes to break Widnes’ second-half clean sheet.

But they had the final say, Roberts breaking through five minutes from time and although he squandered the opportunity to put Morgan McWhirter in under the posts, he managed to get an offload away for Maizen to grab his second score to move Widnes up to seventh in the table ahead of a trip to play-off rivals Halifax this weekend.

GAMESTAR: Adam Lawton made a big impact off the bench and he grabbed two tries.

GAMEBREAKER: Jack Owens’ early second-half score set up a comfortable finish for Widnes.

MATCHFACTS
VIKINGS
33 Jake Maizen
5 Mike Butt
1 Jack Owens
3 Matt Fleming
28 Jon Bennison
19 Declan Patton
7 Tom Gilmore
8 Dan Murray
9 Jordan Johnstone
13 Morgan McWhirter
17 Max Roberts
23 Ben Condon
20 Lewis Hall
Subs (all used)
14 Matty Fozard
16 Adam Lawton
18 Nick Gregson
30 Jack Bibby

Tries: Bennison (13), Maizen (34, 75), Owens (44), Lawton (45, 54), Fozard (63)
Goals: Patton 6/7

HUNSLET
4 Billy Jowitt
5 Mackenzie Turner
1 James Watson
39 Ryan Westerman
21 Coby Nichol
38 Lee Gaskell
42 Finley Balback
15 Liam Carr
10 Matthew Fletcher
31 Kevin Larroyer
11 Ethan Wood
22 Harrison Gilmore
18 Brad Clavering
Subs (all used)
8 Harvey Hallas
26 Ethan O’Hanlon
28 Zach McSwiney
40 Joe Ward

Tries: Balback (19), McSwiney (69)
Goals: Jowitt 2/2

SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 6-6, 10-6; 16-6, 22-6, 28-6, 34-6, 34-12, 40-12

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Vikings: Adam Lawton; Hunslet: Lee Gaskell

Penalty count: 3-9
Half-time: 10-6
Referee: Ryan Cox
Attendance: 3,025