NOTHING COMPARES 2 INU
Vikings boss salutes his ‘unplayable’ two-try matchwinner Krisnan
DENIS BETTS described Krisnan Inu as “unplayable” as the Vikings’ encouraging start to the campaign hit a new high.
The enigmatic centre – who rarely reached the levels of his NRL days while at Catalans – contributed 14 points from two tries and three goals.
That made it five tries for the season and he played a key role in an accomplished win over a depleted but determined Leeds side playing nine days after their World Club Challenge defeat in Melbourne.
Betts said: “When Krisnan wants to play he’s unplayable – he’s at that level.
“That’s the reason we brought him in.
“I work well with him and he knows what I expect of him – he’s responding and delivering.
“He’s got the crowd on his side chanting his name, is scoring tries and he’s decided he wants to kick goals as well now.”
Tom Olbison, Rhys Hanbury and Matt Whitley also earned praise from Betts, whose side were written off pre-season, but have now won twice and conceded only eight tries in four games despite their own absentees.
He added: “We’re OK – our processes are good and our performances have been of a high standard.” Leeds became the third Super League side to lose on their return from Australia this week, although coach Brian McDermott followed his Wigan and Hull counterparts in refusing to use it as an excuse. McDermott said: “We haven’t been down a mine digging a hole. Everyone talks about the travel, but it’s not the worst thing in the world. “We’ve been to Australia and we’ve got a million staff taking care of them.” McDermott did accept though that the absence of 12 firstteam squad members through injury or illness did have some effect. He added: “Probably – I reckon it would be flippant of me not to recognise that.
“But we had some players that had played enough games out there and Widnes had some missing too.
“That was a disappointing loss. We showed loads of endeavour with the ball, but didn’t do enough with it.
“There were too many one-up carries and way too much grunt.”
The Rhinos led 6-4 at the break after Brad Dwyer’s close-range effort cancelled out Joe Mellor’s opening try.
But Widnes gradually earned a grip on the game, despite Hep Cahill’s 42nd-minute sin-binning, with Inu touching down twice and hooker Danny Walker (left, celebrating) also crossing.