But fall to the Rhinos
winger Luke Briscoe who raced clear to give his side a 4-0 lead.
Recognising the effort the players were putting in, the Vikings supporters got behind their team and urged them to hit back.
And they did just that three minutes before half-time when impressive substitute Tom Olbison hit a Finn short-ball hard and was too strong for the Rhinos to stop from close range. Krisnan Inu’s successful conversion gave Widnes a 6-4 interval lead and the hosts went off to the changing rooms to great applause from the home faithful.
The Vikings dominated in terms of possession and field-position early in the second half and forced three goalline drop-outs with Leeds forced into numerous errors.
Inu looked a certain scorer when he plucked a Finn cross-kick out of the air but he lost the ball as he went to ground it.
Having not been at the races since the interval, the Rhinos delivered a sucker punch on 55 minutes.
Liam Sutcliffe’s 40/20 kick set up the position and speedy dummyhalf Matt Parcell took advantage to scoot over from a play-the-ball to restore his team’s lead at 10-6.
Widnes stormed back and enjoyed more pressure on the opposition line until second-row Weller Hauraki was harshly penalised for a push while in possession on the Rhinos’ line.
A scything break from Mellor also took the Vikings close but he was cut down a metre short.
And a smart grubber kick by Lyons was scooped up by Inu but his back pass to Patrick Ah Van went to ground and another chance went begging. It was that sort of afternoon for the Vikings.
With three minutes remaining, Leeds sealed the game with another breakaway. Sutcliffe broke a tackle up the right and carried the ball deep into Widnes territory before finding the supporting Myler whose six-pointer completed the scoring. SUPER 8S – THE QUALIFIERS