Hull let Wolves back in but search for golden point winner falls flat

Rugby League

Brett Hodgson admitted to being disappointed after his Hull FC let victory slip from their grasp against Warrington to give Super League its maiden draw in the Golden Point era.

Hodgson, who spent the final three years of his playing career at the Wolves, looked set to make it three wins from three in Super League since taking charge at the KCOM Stadium with less than a minute remaining on the clock.

Hull half-back Marc Sneyd and Stefan Ratchford traded first-half penalties before Jake Connor and Chris Hill crossed at each end to make it 8-8.

Carlos Tuimavave scored in the corner for Hull, but Jake Mamo slipped through the home defence with two seconds left, with Gareth Widdop’s conversion levelling the scores to take the game into extra time. Both teams had a total of nine drop-goal attempts between them as they searched for a golden-point winner, with Sneyd sliding one by the posts and Andre Savelio blocking Blake Austin’s effort proving the pick of the bunch.

But Hodgson believes there is a lot to learn from this bruising encounter. “It’s a little bit underwhelming not getting a result. We will take the point based on the fact that we would have been pretty disappointed if we lost it in the end,” Hodgson said. “Plenty of lessons to learn from that game, but in terms of our attitude to defending in particular, I couldn’t be more proud.

“They asked plenty of good questions of us as a defence line, but we came up with a majority of the right answers. Little bit disappointed, with that last play of the game – giving them the chance to tie it up, but really proud of the effort.”