ESL Roundup

Hull 28-24 Wakefield Hull: (8) 28 Tries: Yeaman 2, Raynor 2, King, Best Goals: Cooke 2 Wakefield: (0) 24 Tries: Jeffries, Korkidas, Wainwright, Ryder Goals: March 4 Third-placed Hull had a real fight on their hands to see off in-form Wakefield as they chalked up their third straight win. With Hull looked in total control when Colin Best scored their fourth try with half an hour to go to give them an 18-point lead.

But Wakefield hit back with four tries and threatened to produce a shock win.

In the end, Hull managed to hang on thanks to a 71st minute touchdown from Kirk Yeaman.

Hull: Briscoe, Best, Yeaman, Whiting, Raynor, Cooke, R. Horne, McNicholas, Swain, Dowes, McMenemy, Chester, Smith. Replacements: King, Scruton, Lupton, Barnett Jnr.

Wakefield: Halpenny, Ryder, Demetriou, Domic, Tadulala, Ellis, Jeffries, Griffin, March, Korkidas, Solomona, J. Field, Applegarth. Replacements: Snitch, Elima, Wainwright, Spicer.

*******

Salford 28-35 Bradford

Salford: (16) 28 Tries: Alker, Beverley, Caine, Coley Goals: Charles 6 Bradford: (10) 35 Tries: Hape, Johnson 2, Vainikolo 2, Bridge Goals: Withers, Bridge 4 Drop: Withers Struggling Salford made the Bulls fight all the way before the champions could claim their first win in three matches. Bradford trailed 16-10 at half time before regaining their composure to scrape a nervy victory.

Lesley Vainikolo's second try made it 34-22 to the visitors, but Andy Coley's score brought it to within six points.

A late Michael Withers drop goal sealed victory for the visitors, who recovered from losses to St Helens and Leeds, but remain seven points off the top.

Salford went into a shock eighth-minute lead when Neil Baynes and Simon Baldwin combined for Malcolm Alker to go over with Chris Charles booting his first conversion.

But then skipper Robbie Paul engineered two tries in four minutes for the Bulls.

Paul's kick was tapped back by Logan Swann for Shontayne Hape to go over with Withers landing the conversion in the absence of the injured Paul Deacon.

Then Paul put Paul Johnson over for his first try but Salford clawed back two points with a Charles penalty.

Then Gavin Clinch's kick caught Rob Parker asleep with Cliff Beverley touching down.

Charles converted and then struck a penalty to give the Reds a deserved interval advantage.

But two tries early in the second half gave Bradford the upper hand although Salford continued to battle impressively. Johnson took Paul's pass to score in the corner with substitute Chris Bridge adding the goal.

Then Jason Flowers failed to clear the danger from a Bridge kick and Vainikolo went over for the first of his two tries.

A solo try from Bridge which he converted made it 28-16 but Joel Caine responded for Salford on the hour with their third try.

Vainikolo grabbed his second before Coley scored Salford's fourth try to make it a nervous finish, before Withers settled the outcome.

Salford: Flowers, Caine, Littler, Stewart, McAvoy, Beverley, Clinch, Baynes, Alker, Rutgerson, Baldwin, Coley, Charles. Replacements: Fitzpatrick, Moana, Johnson, Haggerty.

Bradford: Reardon, A. Smith, Johnson, Hape, Vainikolo, Withers, Paul, Vagana, A. Smith, Fielden, Peacock, Swann, Radford. Replacements: Bridge, Langley, Parker, Anderson.

****** Wigan 40-18 Huddersfield Wigan: (22) 40 Tries: Farrell, Radlinski 2, Dallas 2, Sculthorpe, Orr. Goals: Farrell 6 Giants: (8) 18 Tries: Slicker, Evans, Nero Goals: White 3 Wigan leapfrogged Huddersfield into fifth place in the Super League with a nervous victory at the JJB Stadium. The Warriors ran in seven tries but had to withstand a Giants fightback to maintain their recent form.

Brett Dallas and Kris Radlinski both grabbed a brace of tries with Andy Farrell, Danny Orr and Danny Sculthorpe adding further scores.

The Giants, trailing 22-8 at half-time, managed three tries but defeat was a blow to their own play-off hopes.

Wigan looked on course for a comfortable victory as they ran in four quick tries.

But it was not until a further three-try burst late in the game that the Warriors finally secured the points after the Giants hit back with a stirring rally.

Radlinski's brace saw him overtake Leeds' Francis Cummins and become the most prolific try-scorer in Super League with 112.

Wigan were on the scoreboard within six minutes as captain Farrell forced his way over for the opening try and another soon followed.

Adrian Lam's kick sat up perfectly for Radlinski to dive through the posts and touch down.

Dallas then grabbed his first as Wigan cut through the Giants defence again and spread the ball wide for Gary Connolly to put the Australian over.

The winger had his second - his ninth in six games against Huddersfield - soon after as Orr broke from deep and found him charging past on the outside.

Farrell converted three of the tries but the Giants finally began to wake up before the end of the first half.

Paul White, switched inside after starting scrum-half Paul March was injured early on, first caught the home defence flat-footed with a piercing run.

Wigan survived on that occasion but did not hold out for much longer as Stanley Gene opened up a gap for Mick Slicker to score.

White, who had knocked over an earlier penalty, converted to cut the gap to 22-8 at the break.

The Giants continued their revival with two tries soon after the restart.

White created the first with a powerful run and James Evans finally touched down in the corner after a dangerous exchange of passes.

Gene was then the architect of his side's third try when he set Chris Nero free and the loose forward won the race to the line.

With White converting, the Warriors' lead had been whittled down to four points.

Wigan sensed the threat and produced a devastating response as first substitute Sculthorpe barged his way over.

Lam then worked an opening for Radlinski to race in for his second and from the kick-off Orr found space to add the seventh.

Farrell maintained his usual efficiency in front of goal to convert all three and take his tally to 12 points.

Huddersfield's frustration was evident as Gene was placed on report for appearing to trample on Lam.

Wigan: Radlinski, Dallas, Connolly, Wild, Hodgson, Orr, Lam, O'Connor, Newton, C. Smith, Tickle, Farrell, O'Loughlin. Replacements: Cassidy, Hock, Sculthorpe, M. Smith.

Huddersfield: Donlan, White, Evans, St Hilaire, O'Hare, Gene, March, Fleary, Penkywicz, Gannon, Jones, Roarty, Nero. Replacements: Slicker, Crabtree, Grayshon, Joseph.

****** Warrington-42 v London Broncos-12

Warrington coach Paul Cullen was pleased with his side's win but not overly impressed by their performance against London.

The Wolves were hardly tested as they ran they in seven tries at the Halliwell Jones Stadium to condemn the Broncos to their seventh successive Tetley's Super League defeat.

Paul Noone and Ben Westwood each finished with two tries apiece and Lee Briers scored 14 points as the Wolves bounced back from last week's loss at Widnes to win 42-12.

Cullen said: "I am pleased with the two points, which was our ultimate goal from today.

"We were confident of a result, and that's with all respect to London Broncos, who are having a horror show with injuries.

"But we are not getting carried away. It was not a perfect performance but we got through it and now we can look forward to taking on Castleford.

"I am happy with the two points because after last week the players needed to show what is under their shirts and between their ears."

Cullen believes his side will need to become more clinical in the weeks ahead.

He added: "I think we are trying to set a record for not scoring tries. We have bombed so many over the tryline.

"We have to make sure it does not become embarrassing. We have shown patience with a number of players and that patience has to be rewarded."

The Broncos once again contributed to their own downfall with a number of individual errors.

The visitors also lacked any sort of cutting edge and failed to make the most of their possession.

The defeat leaves the club 11th in the table just four points above bottom side Castleford.

Coach Tony Rea said: "Some individuals are not doing their responsibilities and not giving the team what they should.

"We have got to learn from this and these errors are disappointing.

"I think it is immaturity and a bit of dumbness. The senior players could not work any harder but everyone has got to work together.

"We have got to push hard to turn it around and get ourselves back into it."

**** Leeds 48 v Widnes 24 Leeds coach Tony Smith hailed another superb performance from Danny McGuire after the stand-off's five tries against Widnes on Friday night.

McGuire equalled the Tetley's Super League record for the number of tries in one match as the competition leaders overcame the Vikings 48-24 at Headingley.

The Vikings could not contain the 21-year-old as he ripped their defence apart with a series of dazzling runs to take his tally for the season to 21.

Smith said: "He is a great support player and he also created a couple for himself.

"He turns up on the end of things all the time and it was a great night for him.

"It equals the Super League record. That is fantastic for him and helps him along in the leading tryscorers' stakes."

Yet, despite McGuire's stunning display, Smith was not entirely satisfied with his performance, even though they now have a seven-point lead at the top of the table.

He added: "Some standards dropped. We conceded a couple of tries from kicks - sometimes you can't do anything about that - but they also ran a couple in and we don't like that.

"But the players felt it was a difficult game to get into. It was very stop-start.

"We will have to look at that. We have played some games that have been free-flowing but for some reason it was not like that tonight. Perhaps it was discipline.

"There is a feeling within the group that we are going to get better. We are not bad but we have got a lot of improving to do."

Widnes produced another encouraging performance as they continued their recuperation from a club record loss at Hull 11 days ago.

Simon Finnigan scored the opening try after just 85 seconds, Chris Giles claimed two tries in the second half and Nicky Royle also got on the scoresheet.

Vikings coach Neil Kelly said: "I thought for a lot of the time we did very well.

"We are a side coming back from something bad a couple of weeks ago and I would like to see this as a step forward.

"We need to sharpen up and we are not happy with conceding 48 points but we were missing two important players in Robert Relf and Jules O'Neill."

*******

Saints 52 v Castleford 8

Two-try hauls from Darren Albert, Paul Wellens and Chris Joynt helped St Helens to a comfortable victory over Castleford Tigers and ensured Ellery Hanley's return to Knowsley Road ended in disappointment.

Hanley, the new coaching consultant at the Jungle, saw his old side run riot in the second half, notching 34 unanswered points, although the Tigers will feel the scoreline flattered Ian Millward's men after a reasonably even first period.

The Challenge Cup winners proved too fast and too clever out wide, with Sean Long bagging 16 points via a try and six goals.

Saints had been immediately placed under pressure of their own making when Ade Gardner's hospital pass was only just recovered by Wellens on his own line.

From the resulting play-the-ball, though, skipper Paul Sculthorpe dummied his way through some poor tackling from the Tigers markers to break the line.

Although he initially ignored the flying Albert to his right, he slipped the ball instead to Jason Hooper on his left shoulder and the Aussie had too much pace for the chasing defence to touch down under the posts, Long converting.

The Tigers were quick to respond and, after Luke Robinson had forced two goal-line drop-outs with excellent grubber kicks, the on-loan Wigan scrum half put Andy Kain through a gaping gap only for Wellens to pull off a sensational try-saving tackle five yards short.

Cas did pull two points back through the boot of Wayne Godwin after 15 minutes when the home side were penalised for offside bang in front of the posts.

Three minutes later Paul Mellor touched down out left after fielding Robinson's beautifully-judged bomb and taking Albert over the line with him.

Godwin's magnificent touchline goal gave the Tigers an unlikely 8-6 advantage.

Saints were not behind for long, though, a short kick-off proving fruitful and quick hands right saw Martin Gleeson put Albert in for the walk-in score.

Long added the extras from out wide to restore Saints' four-point lead.

Albert then grabbed his second try two minutes later when he followed up in support after Hooper latched on to Wellens' well-timed pass, and Long again converted to stretch the lead to 10 points.

Saints increased their lead within a minute of the restart, Wellens plucking Long's bomb from the grasp of full-back Jonny Hepworth to score and Long again making no mistake.

Long added the fifth try himself after 53 minutes, darting over from close range through the stretched defence, although Sculthorpe had to fire over the conversion after the scrum half took a knock to the head.

Two minutes later, Long sent Wellens through the gap to score out wide, the scrum half converting yet again and, at 36-8 down and a quarter of the game still to go, the Tigers were looking down the barrels of another heavy defeat that their enthusiastic effort did not deserve.

Joynt was the next to cross the whitewash, walking in under the posts after Long was tackled just short.

Sculthorpe notched the easy conversion and added a try of his own two minutes later, Long this time converting to take the score out to 48-8.

Joynt completed the scoring in the dying stages, although Long blotted his copybook with the first missed goal of the night.