Super League XVIII Review - Round 8

Despite being in spring, winter returned with a vengeance as Super League round 8 was played out with some games played on snow covered pitches. The pack moved within one point of league leaders Huddersfield Giants who struggled to master the winter wonderland at Warrington on Friday night.

So below we have look at the round panned out.

St Helens 14
Tries: Gardner, Meli
Goals: Charnock 3

Salford City Reds 10
Tries: Foran, Sneyd
Goals: Sneyd

Att: 5,348

St Helens were made to hang on for a hard-fought win over Salford City Reds at Langtree Park.

This was always gone be a tall order for the City Reds, as they have not won in St Helens for over 30 years  and they were not helped with the injuries to Shannon McPherson, Lee Jewitt and Vic Mauro , which made them short up front.

St Helens, also had injuries themselves as James Roby, Lance Hohaia, Anthony Laffranchi and Jonny Lomax were unable.

In a tight first half ex Saint Martin Gleeson almost put Salford ahead but the hosts replied and went in front on 24 minutes as Ade Gardner scored the only try of the first half.  Sol Soliola, Paul Wellens and Jordan Turner all had a hand in the touchdown.

Youngster Lewis Charnock missed the conversion but scored his first points for the club with a penalty just before the break as St Helens narrowly led 6-0.

On 58 minutes Francis Meli finished off a Josh Jones break and when Charnock kicked his third goal, to make it 14-0, Saints looked well on course for a comfortable win.

However, there was to be some late drama as Salford suddenly made it a contest. Firstly Mark Sneyd's kick was caught by Jordan James and he fed ex Sea Eagle Liam Foran to make it 14-6 with 12 minutes left.

With time running out Sneyd made it a nervous end for Saints as he went out two minutes from time, but the hosts held on to claim the points.

Warrington Wolves 28
Tries: Riley, Ratchford 2, Hodgson
Goals: Hodgson 6

Huddersfield Giants 2
Goal: Brough

Att: 9,797

Warrington Wolves handed out a second defeat of the season to League Leaders Huddersfield Giants in blizzard conditions at the H.J. Stadium.

The game was played in atrocious conditions with snow falling throughout and gale force winds; despite this the teams tried their best.

Huddersfield captain Danny Brough gave his side the early lead as he tagged on a penalty goal after nine minutes.

As the game was played conservatively, the Wolves scored the first try on the 20 minutes mark as a long pass from Brett Hodgson's put winger Chris Riley over for a simple score.  The ex West Tiger Hodgson kicked the touchline conversion and gave his side and 8-2 lead by adding a penalty goal, before the home side put together the best move of the match to score their second try.

Just before the break, Warrington produced the move of the game as Ryan Atkins made the initial break and in support was Chris Bridge who laid on the try for Stefan Ratchford. Once again Hodgson made no mistake with the goal as the hosts led 14-2 at half time.

Hodgson was on target again seconds after the restart after the Giants were penalised for indiscipline. Ratchford went over again just after the 60 minutes mark after Richard Myler's grubber kick on the last tackle was palmed into the stand-offs arms.

The game was all over 12 minutes from time as Hodgson got over the whitewash after some slick passing by Micky Higham and Myler.

Hodgson rounded things off by kicking his sixth goal in six attempts as Warrington closed the gap on their opponents who suffered only their second defeat of the campaign.

London Broncos 18
Tries: Lee, Dixon, Cook
Goals: Witt 3

Hull FC 18
Tries: Galea, Westerman, Horne
Goals: Tickle 3

Att: 1,865

Hull FC claimed a share of the spoils with London Broncos at the Twickenham Stoop by coming from behind late on.

The Londoners made the better start to game and they could not make the most of a break by Tommy Lee. After continuing there good work, hooker Lee broke the deadlock as he showed strength by shrugging off Joe Westerman to score next to the posts. Michael Witt made no mistake with the extras as the hosts led 6-0 after 25 minutes.

Ten minutes later the Black and Whites were back on terms as Ben Galea regathered a grubber kick which bounced off a Broncos defender to score. Danny Tickle levelled things up with a touchline conversion.

There was still time left in the first period for young Broncos winger Kerion Dixon to show his pace as he picked up the ball on the left wing and danced his way past two Hull defenders to score an unconverted try.

After receiving a string of penalties, Witt made it 12-6 by kicking a 51st minute penalty goal to make it 12-6 to the Londoners.

Then the Broncos' third try arrived courtesy of Matt Cook who took a flat ball from Lee to crash over. Witt made it 18-6 to put the hosts firmly in control.

However, this seemed to wake Hull up and led by Danny Houghton, who got his term charging up the field, Joe Westerman got over the whitewash and with another goal from Tickle it was game on as the visitors only trailed by six points.

With time running out, The Black and Whites worked the ball wide for Richard Horne and he went over left-hand corner before Tickle cooley kicked the conversion off the touchline to snatch his team a dramatic draw.

Catalan Dragons 30
Tries: Bosquet, Anderson, Escare, Millard, Taia, Pryce
Goals: Bosc 3

Bradford Bulls 10
Tries: Kear, Bateman
Goals: Foster

Att: 6,813

For the third time this season Catalan Dragons came from behind at the break to run out easy winners over Bradford Bulls at the Gilbert Brutus Stadium in Perpignan.

After battling against the snow to get to France, the Bulls got out of the blocks very quickly and took the lead after 13 minutes. The ball was sent out to the right hand side and good work by John Bateman led to Elliott Kear going over in the corner. Jamie Foster added the extras.

On the half hour the Bulls lead was increased to 10-0. Brett Kearney raced clear and was brought down short of the line, but from the next play Elliot Whitehead offloaded for Bateman to touchdown out wide.

Needing a score before the break, the French hosts duly delivered as six minutes from the interval Julian Bousquet powered his way over the line. Thomas Bosc cut the gap to 10-6 at half time with the conversion.

However, as in previous games this year, the Dragons dominated the second half and shut Bradford out with five unanswered tries.

Ten minutes after the resumption, ex Bull Leon Pryce sent Louis Anderson through the smallest of gaps for the first score. From the restart Remi Casty Pryce combined as rookie fullback Morgan Escaré made it a dream debut by scoring the second try of the half.

On the sixty minute mark a Foster pass found Damien Blanch, who set Daryl Millard up to make it 20-10 in favour of the hosts.

Zeb Taia scored next to the uprights before eight minutes from time Pryce squeezed his way over the line to score against his hometown club as Catalan made up for last week’s heavy defeat at Wigan.

Wigan Warriors 62
Tries: Charnley 4, S. Tomkins 3, Tucson, Farrell, Richards, Thornley
Goals: Richards 9

Widnes Vikings 4
Tries: White

Att: 11,904

Wigan Warriors ran in eleven tries as they destroyed Widnes Vikings at the DW Stadium.

Coach Sean Wane welcomed back talisman Sam Tomkins, after last week’s narrow defeat at Leeds as they entertained the Widnes Vikings who had five ex Wigan players in their line-up but crucially missed another two in main playmaker Kevin Brown and on-loan forward Garreth Hock who was unable to play due to a stipulation in his contact.

Despite missing five first-choice forwards through injury, the Warriors were far too strong for the poor Vikings and effectively ended any hopes for the visitors by running in seven first half tries to lead 38-0 at half time.

Tomkins got things underway by finishing off a break by Josh Charnley. Then the England winger took centre stage by adding a quickfire hat-trick who missed the Warriors' defeat by Leeds with a dead leg, took only seven minutes to score the game's opening try, finishing off a break by Charnley, who quickly took centre stage with a quickfire hat-trick in just twelve minutes.

Tomkins grabbed his second try after half an hour, touching down his own kick, before Charnley turned provider by getting Chris Tuson to score the hosts sixth try. The England winger rounded the half off by claiming his fourth after good work by Scott Taylor.

It was normal service at the start of the second period as Iain Thornley made the break for halfway and got Liam Farrell over the line.
 
Pat Richards was next to touchdown as the Warriors raced past the fifty point barrier. Thornley got one for himself before Widnes finally got some luck.

Lloyd White prevented a shut out by scoring a consolation short-range effort but this was temporary rest bite as Sam Tomkins completed his hat-trick and Wigan’s eleventh try of the night.

Pat Richards kicked his 9 goal from 11 attempts to finish with a 22-ponits haul as the Warriors moved within 1 point of league leaders Huddersfield Giants.

Hull KR 26
Tries: Burns, Welham, D. Hodgson, J. Hodgson, Hall
Goals: Burns 3

Castleford Tigers 22
Tries: Dixon, Webster, Owen, Clark
Goals: Dixon 3

Att: 6,489

Hull KR claimed a narrow win over Castleford Tigers in a nervy game at MS3 Craven Park.

Rovers made the better start and after been marched down the ground by receiving a number of penalties, ex Penrith Panther Travis Burns opened the scoring in the fifth minute. His initial kick bounced off Rangi Chase back into his own hands for the Stand-off to touchdown and kick the extras.

Good work by Michael Dobson led to Kris Welham extending the home-sides lead to 10-0 before Castleford then got back into the contest as a mistake by David Hodgson was punished by Kirk Dixon who also converted it effort.

Back came KR as the ball was spread from middle to left for Dave Hodgson to score in the corner and make up for his earlier error. Burns was wide with the conversion as the lead went out to 14-6.

However, the Tigers ended the first half the stronger as they hit back to lead 16-14. Greg Eden made an error and this was punished by ex Rovers centre Jake Webster and six minutes from the break Richard Owen scored the away sides third after Eden had dropped a high bomb.

Early in the second half, Rovers re-took the lead thanks to Josh Hodgson going over from dummy half and the advantage was 26-16 as a mistake by Jordan Tansey led to Craig Hall scoring a simple try.

A hat-trick of errors from Eden allowed the visitors back into the game, as the full-back allowed Tansey's kick to bounce and Daryl Clark capitalised by collecting the ball to score next to the posts.

Dixon's conversion made it 26-22 with 22 minutes to play, but this would be the last score of the game as Rovers managed to cling on for a valuable two points ahead of Good Friday’s big city Derby with Hull FC.

The game between Wakefield Wildcats and Leeds Rhinos was called off twice due to adverse weather in West Yorkshire and unsafe conditions around the Rapid Solicitors Stadium for spectators.

Super League Ladder after Round 8