VIKINGS EDEN INTO QUALIFIERS
RUGBY LEAGUE
WIDNES’ fight for survival will take them to Toronto and Toulouse after Greg Eden’s hat-trick condemned them to a 16th straight Super League defeat.
Francis Cummins’ side will now drop into the Qualifiers against the top four clubs in the Championship, which includes the two overseas teams.
After an encouraging start prompted by debutant Liam Finn, the Vikings suffered familiar defensive woes against a Castleford team that scored four times in seven minutes at one point. But Cummins (left) said: “The fortunate thing for us is that we’re not playing Cas every week. “We are where we are, and the challenge is to go to those places and win.
“Other teams have done it so why can’t we?”
Castleford finish the regular season in third place, with coach Daryl Powell now giving his players four days off before regrouping for their Super Eights campaign and a push for a second consecutive Grand Final at Old Trafford in October.
Powell said: “The players deserve a couple of beers tonight after what we’ve done over 23 rounds.
“They can get their heads out of rugby for a while then come back in with some real focus. To finish the regular season third after our injuries is an outstanding effort.”
After Eden opened the scoring, the Tigers found themselves 12-4 behind as Finn created scores for Patrick Ah Van and Rhys Hanbury.
But that remarkable purple patch of tries for Eden, Jake Trueman and Quentin Laulu-Togaga’e, twice, quickly made it 28-12.
Widnes scored twice again through Harrison Hansen and Ah Van thanks to two more Finn assists.
But the scrum-half also threw an intercept for Eden’s hat-trick effort, with Mitch Clark and Adam Milner completing the scoring for the visitors.