GAVIN’S SLAIN BY DEADLY VIKINGS
GAVIN HENSON’S rugby league debut ended with a harsh lesson for 12-man West Wales Raiders, who were dumped out of the Challenge Cup by Widnes.
Henson and fellow high-profile recruit Rangi Chase showed some neat touches in an opening quarter that saw the home side take a shock lead through Uraia Naulusala.
But the 19th-minute dismissal of Jamie Murphy for a spear tackle opened the floodgates for the Vikings, with hattricks by Steve Tyrer and Jack Owens.
Henson, playing at stand-off, missed his only conversion attempt but stuck to his task.
Ex-wales union star Henson, 39, said: “I learned a lot. It’s the first time I played the game. I watched it, but there’s nothing quite like playing.
“It’s so relentless, it’s non-stop – I need to get fitter, basically. I did all right, I just couldn’t offer much because it was a very
WEST WALES WIDNES tiring game. We’ll take a lot out of it. The main thing for us is the league, and we’ve got six weeks before that starts.
“We were competing with them, finishing our sets, but losing a man killed the game for us.
“But it’s our first game of the season, emotions are running high and these things happen.”
Championship Widnes scored 11 tries in all, with Jake Spedding notching a double and Shane Grady, Deon Cross and Adam Lawton also touching down.
The Vikings also had to deal with sin bins for Danny Craven and Will Tilleke and a head injury to youngster Callum O’neill that held the game up for an extended period.
He was initially due to go to hospital but returned north with his team, who now face Whitehaven in the next round. 4 58