BLAKE TOO LIVELY FOR BATTERED WAKEFIELD
Hull coach Andy: Covid chaos put fire in the belly of my players
ANDY LAST believes Hull FC’s Covid nightmare fuelled his players’ fire after Albert Kelly guided the Black and Whites to a morale-boosting win.
The club saw two matches postponed after 12 players and staff tested positive for the virus in the wake of a heavy defeat by Salford.
But with Kelly producing a host of telling contributions and young forwards Jordan Johnstone, Joe Cator and Jack Brown standing tall up front, Hull shrugged off a first-half injury to Marc Sneyd to record a fourth win of the season.
Interim coach Last said: “I challenged them to show a response and they did that.
“When we’ve faced adversity in the past we haven’t come up with the right answers but I thought we did today - it was a really positive response.
“It wasn’t a complete performance and there’s plenty to work to do but I thought the character in the second half was outstanding.
The situation we found ourselves in wasn’t nice but it fuelled the fire.”
Hull’s victory was built on a near-flawless opening halfhour that saw them establish a 28-0 lead. Kelly plunged over from close range to open the
Wigan St Helens Warrington Catalans Leeds Castleford Huddersfield Hull Salford Wakefield Hull K R
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W 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 4 2 2 1 scoring before Sneyd pounced on an error from Jordan Turner on halfway and had enough pace to reach the line.
Sneyd then kicked for Josh Griffin to touch down, and a superb ball from Kelly saw sub Brown burst through and over Giants fullback Ash Golding to score.
Even the withdrawal of Sneyd with an ankle problem couldn’t stop the one-way traffic as Johnstone’s neat kick was finished by Mahe Fonua.
Huddersfield eventually hit back when Golding touched down before the break and they closed the gap to 16
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F A Pts 221 136 14 228 109 12 179 110 12 216 141 10 201 162 10 166 174 8 144 155 8 194 242 8 136 216 4 115 226 4 112 241 2 points when Turner crossed just after the hour mark.
When Fonua was then sinbinned after a shuddering hit on Darnell McIntosh, an unlikely comeback looked possible. But the 12-man Black and Whites regrouped and closed the game out with a Griffin penalty and Jamie Shaul drop goal.
Giants boss Simon Woolford said: “There’s an old saying in rugby league that you can’t win a game in the first 20 minutes but you can lose one, and that was the case today.
“Our defensive effort in the first half-hour was poor and we showed no real resilience on our try-line. Then for the next 50 minutes we saw the Giants that we’ve seen all year – but we needed to start with that intent and energy.”
BLAKE AUSTIN’S virtuoso brilliance helped Warrington Wolves keep pace with Super League’s leading pack.
The Australia-born Great Britain star (above) scored two superb individual tries before completing a sparkling hat-trick as Steve Price’s side made it three wins from three since the restart.
Austin’s pace and vision was just too much for a Trinity team already low on confidence and form.
They have now won only five times in their last 23 Super League matches and centre Bill Tupou became the latest injury casualty after failing his head injury assessment.
Coach Chris Chester also had to deal with prop David Fifita being stood down in midweek for refusing to wear a GPS vest that helps the sport’s track and trace system.
But counterpart Price has no such issues and his side were in total control from the moment Toby King touched down.
Austin then produced his first moment of magic before creating a try for Josh Charnley to make it 18-0 at the break. And the stand-off stepped and dummied his way through once more.
After Ben Currie raced over from long range, Austin completed his treble by finishing a smart move.