Widnes Vikings 0-38 Hull FC: Visitors ease past Widnes in Super 8s
Last Updated: 12/08/16 8:51am
Hull FC tightened their grip at the top of Super League by handing lacklustre Widnes a punishing 38-0 defeat.
Fetuli Talanoa was the star of the show as he chalked up a well-taken hat-trick, making the most of the shoddy defending that affected the Vikings all evening.
The game and result was a near mirror of what happened the last time the two sides met in Widnes on the artificial turf. The Vikings dished out a 46-6 thrashing that time, however the boot was firmly on the other foot on Thursday as Hull completed a demolition job on the out-of-sorts home side.
Coach Denis Betts fielded a youthful looking Widnes side with five rookies in action from the academy side, and while they put up a fight, Hull were in no mood to go easy and set up a straightforward victory with a 22-0 half-time lead.
Hull hardly broke into a sweat as Widnes coughed up loose ball and too many mistakes that an FC side in clinical form were never going to pass up on.
The first 20 minutes were largely forgettable with both sides making clumsy errors. The Vikings had the best of the play and went close after 18 minutes as Joe Mellor's midfield punt hit the crossbar and nearly bounced into the arms of his captain, Kevin Brown.
Hull FC came back at the Vikings with some force and a powerful burst from Jordan Abdull made the breakthrough as he ran over the top of the weak-tackling hosts.
Abdull tagged on the extras and was in action again five minutes later from the touchline, with a long-range conversion shot after Talanoa demonstrated almost Olympic diving skills with a touchdown in the corner.
At 10-0, Hull FC were well in charge and that lead was extended when Mahe Fonua made the most of slack defence to spin over.
Abdull hit the conversion to make it 16-0 and the tries continued to roll in and as Widnes tried to drag themselves back in to it, they forced the ball in dangerous territory and it was snaffled by Talanoa who sprinted in from 30 metres.
The game was effectively over at 22-0, and the points continued to come.
Widnes went close twice in the space of a few minutes with Corey Thompson nearly grounding the ball out wide and Lloyd White falling short from dummy-half, but the video referee ruled against them.
Steve Michaels popped up to take a routine bomb over the line for another converted Hull try.
The mistakes and tries kept coming and Dean Hadley was next to benefit as he crashed over from short range. Talanoa completed his hat-trick with a dart and dive over in the corner.
