Creditable effort but Vikings lose at Leeds
● LEEDS RHINOS ............................. 42 WIDNES VIKINGS ........................ 22 WIDNES went down 42-22 to Leeds Rhinos on Easter Monday afternoon, their second defeat of the Easter period, after a first half drubbing gave them too much to do after the break.
A much-changed Vikings line-up from the one that faced Warrington four days earlier included debutants Owen Farnworth and Liam Walsh.
The two Academy products both gave their all in what must have been a daunting start to their Super League careers at Headingley Carnegie Stadium.
It was difficult not to have some sympathy for the Vikings in the first half.
Not only were they faced with a rampant and in-form Leeds side but they lost stand-off Danny Craven, hooker Lloyd White, and winger Tom Armstrong through injury.
A 30-6 interval deficit was frankly insurmountable though Denis Betts’s men had a good go before a late spurt saw the home side ease to the finish line.
Betts said: “We got ambushed at the start and we intended to start quickly ourselves.
“But we were only completing at 60 per cent and got behind in the penalty count and then we just got caught in a whirlwind of incomplete sets and injuries.
“Losing Danny and Lloyd, two blokes who were pretty pivotal to what we wanted to do today, made it difficult as we had to switch around a lot. We’re down on troops and it’s a tough time at the moment.
“We’d like to take some credit for the second half but they ran out of steam a little bit too.
“There’s still a long way to go and the bottom four is still made up of sides who are not so far away from us.”
Rhys Hanbury, Chris Bridge, Joe Mellor, Alex Gerrard, Jay Chapelhow, Matt Whitley, Sam Brooks and Tom Olbison were all missing from the Warrington game.
Corey Thompson, Patrick Ah Van, Tom Gilmore, Ted Chapelhow, Lloyd White and Jack Buchanan came in as well as Farnworth and Walsh.
Widnes couldn’t catch a break in the early stages with 50/50 calls going against them and the Rhinos were soon in charge.
Converted tries from Kallum Watkins, Matt Parcell (from a freakish bounce off the crossbar) and Joel Moon gave the home side an 18-0 lead.
The Vikings pulled six points back on 24 minutes when Gilmore dummied over from close range for a well-taken try but it was brief respite.
Moon crossed for his second score of the game and winger Tom Briscoe sneaked over from dummy-half for a soft one to give Leeds their 30-6 half-time cushion.
Most people’s money was probably on more of the same after the break but Widnes showed tremendous spirit to forge a second half fightback.
The Vikings began to dominate possession and field-position and pulled six points back when dummy-half Jordan Johnstone’s bullet pass sent Gilmore through a hole for his second converted try. A Gilmore chip kick was regathered by Farnworth who intelligently offloaded to skipper Chris Houston and his touchdown reduced the arrears to 30-18.
On 64 minutes, the impossible started to seem possible when Thompson linked up from full-back and scrambled over wide out to reduce the arrears to just eight points.
Shaken out of their lethargy, the Rhinos finally got their act together again when skipper Danny McGuire’s flat pass sent Watkins over for his second try of the afternoon.
Widnes had given their all and conceded from the final play of the game with Parcell joining the two-try club and Watkins adding his seventh goal from as many attempts.