A Kris of life
INU GIVES WIDNES SOME HOPE Widnes ..................... 26 Halifax ...................... 12 by Julie Stott
KRISNAN INU masterminded Widnes’ first league win since March to keep their slim survival hopes alive.
But the Super League strugglers were far from impressive against the Yorkshire part-timers from the Championship.
The win merely delays the likelihood of relegation, with Widnes’ remaining games away at Toronto and Hull KR.
But coach Francis Cummins insists there is still a chance after stopping the rot of 17 successive defeats.
He said: “Until you cannot do it, you have got to have hope. The mood is good despite what is going on around the club.”
Cummins accused some rival clubs of trying to pick off some of his players, unsettling the team.
He added: “The vultures are flying around and some of them have not even got the decency to stay in the air.
“There are people who are talking to our players and that is not a good place to be but the players remain committed.” Even winning their final two games will not guarantee safety, but probably just put them into the do-or-die Million Pound Game relegation play-off – if they are lucky.
But, if they could not properly kill off a part-time side that had also lost all of their Middle 8s games, then that’s highly unlikely.
Halifax coach Richard Marshall said: “Widnes were desperate and they were the better team but there was not much between the two teams.
“If they gave away prizes for heart and value we would be up there.
“But it was an opportunity that got away because we could have won this game.
“We just lacked that spark and that game changer but we did not disgrace ourselves by any means.” There was little to separate the two sides and Halifax almost got off to a flier with a fourth-minute effort from Shane Grady.
Video referee Robert Hicks disallowed it for offside and Widnes responded to the scare with two tries in four minutes.
Weller Hauraki grabbed the first, after crisp handling from half-backs Joe Lyons and Liam Finn, and Inu bulldozed his way over for the second.
But the home side didn’t have the skill to kill off their opponents and Marshall’s men struck back.
Scott Murrell’s clever inside pass to James Woodburn-Hall made it 10-6 at the break with the game very much in the balance.
Inu settled the home nerves when he put Patrick Ah Van over and the winger then returned the favour for the Kiwi to grab his second try.
But Halifax refused to be shaken off and came back with a James Saltonstall try before Ah Van sealed the win with his second in the 80th minute.
It failed to gloss over the problems, though, with fans unfurling a banner calling for chief executive James Rule to leave.