Betts: We’ve let ourselves down

Widnes head coach Denis Betts has vowed to put things right after the Vikings lost their final regular season game at Warrington on Thursday.

A strong second half display by the home side helped them come from behind to win 22-6 and Betts admitted he was disappointed with his team’s performance after the break.

“You want to win these games and be successful moving forward, but you want to respect the process that is going to keep us in Super League which we failed to do in the second half,” said Betts.

“We were patchy again. It was a great forty minutes and we probably could have asked a few more questions with some of our kicks, but we were solid which we haven’t been over the last couple of weeks.

“We just failed to apply the pressure when we had the ball in the second half – we dropped the ball twice on their line and gave a penalty away and didn’t really get back into the game.

“We now have a two-week break and then have seven games in a mini-season and it gives us the chance to right a couple of wrongs when we feel we have let ourselves down by losing close games.”

While Aaron Heremaia is ruled out for the rest of the season with a knee injury, Betts is hoping to have a stronger squad available to him for the Middle 8s.

Lloyd White, Chris Bridge, Rhys Hanbury, Chris Houston and Jack Buchanan should all be available for selection, while Rangi Chase will be clear to play after recovering from his second head knock this season.

“He wasn’t allowed to play (at Warrington),” added Betts.

“If we had a six day turnaround he’d have just made it, but he’s been reported for a previous concussion at Castleford so you have to have clearance of a neurosurgeon and six days was too soon to play.

“He was pretty gutted he couldn’t play, but that’s just the nature of where we are.”