Airlie Birds vanquish Vikings

Hull FC has effectively ended the Vikings hopes of a semi-final place, and kept their hold on top spot, with a comprehensive 0-38 victory at the Select Security Stadium.

Widnes are ten points behind St Helens in fourth place with five games remaining.

Eleven minutes into the match Hep Cahill came to within a metre of crashing over for the Vikings before the referee Ben Thaler adjudged Lloyd White’s pass to be a forward one.

It took another ten minutes before the first try was scored, Jordan Abdull showing brute strength to bundle over after Danny Houghton’s pass out of dummy-half. Abdull nailed the conversion to give the Airlie Birds a 0-6 lead.

Fetuli Talanoa added his name to the scoresheet with a superb finish, acrobatically diving over in the corner.

The Black and Whites continued to assert a foothold in the first half, Mahe Fonua touching down out of dummy-half, spinning away from Kevin Brown’s challenge.

Things continued to go from bad to worse for the Vikings, Macgraff Leulai throwing the ball straight to Talanoa who broke the Widnes line before racing clear and touching down for his second try of the match.

Corey Thompson thought he had scored for the Vikings four minutes into the second half but the try was disallowed, after confirmation from the video referee, deeming he had been pushed out into touch.

Hull FC continued to impress in defence, Dean Hadley making a try-saving challenge on the line to deny Llloyd White.

That moment may have proved pivotal as Steve Michaels went down the other end and extended the Airlie Birds’ lead to 26 points after catching Carlos Tuimavave’s kick.

Hadley received Abdull’s pass before piercing a fragile Widnes defence and scoring another four-pointer for the Black and Whites.

Talanoa reached his hat-trick with 11 minutes remaining, receiving Yeaman’s pass before bundling through two Widnes players and touching down in the corner.