Wolves keep up the hunt

Lee Briers: scored the crucial try just after the break

Ryan Atkins: Hat-trick of tries for Warrington

A hat-trick of tries from England centre Ryan Atkins helped Warrington to an ultimately comfortable 40-18 victory over Hull.

Atkins produced a superb all-round performance to help his side cut Wigan's lead at the top to just a point before the Warriors meet Widnes on Monday night.

Atkins claimed two tries in an evenly contested first half which saw the sides level at 18-18 at half time, but his third try of the afternoon was the gamebreaker.

With the Wolves holding a six point advantage at 24-18 and Hull down to 12-men after the sin-binning of Willie Manu, Atkins showed tremendous power and pace to race 30 metres to score a superb individual try.

The Wolves scored 22 unanswered points in the second half with further tries from Lee Briers, Garreth Carvell and Joel Monaghan to add to first-half efforts from Chris Riley and two from Atkins while Gareth O'Brien landed six conversions from seven attempts.

Hull grabbed tries through Kirk Yeaman, Manu and Joe Westerman and three goals from Danny Tickle in defeat.

It was the visitors who were quickest out of the blocks, however, as they stunned the home side with two tries in the opening eight minutes in a superb opening.

Firstly a wonderful overhead pass from Manu allowed Yeaman to score the opening try of the game after six minutes.

Then two minutes later Yeaman turned provider as he released Tom Briscoe down the left wing and his inside pass allowed Manu to touch down to which Tickle converted to give Hull an early 10-0 advantage.

Warrington crossed for their first try of the game two minutes later as Carvell charged down Brett Seymour's kick and Atkins scooped up the loose ball to race clear to score, with O'Brien converting.

Hull then increased their lead as Richard Horne's pass sent Westerman into space and the loose forward skipped out of a couple of attempted tackles to dive over.

But two tries in three minutes from the Wolves edged the home side in front late in the half.

An Atkins pass allowed Riley to squeeze over in the corner for a well taken try from the winger and three minutes later Briers and O' Brien combined to send Atkins over for his second try of the game.

O'Brien landed both conversions to edge Warrington in front at 18-16.

Vital try

But in the final seconds of the half Warrington were penalised for offside and Tickle booted over the resulting penalty to level matters at 18-18 at half time.

It was the home side who claimed the vital first try of the second half when 10 minutes after the restart it was Briers who threw an outrageous dummy and managed to scramble over to the left the posts to which O'Brien again converted.

Hull's cause wasn't helped when Manu was sent to the sin-bin for interference after his Hull side had been given a warning from referee Ben Thaler.

And the Wolves scored two tries in his absence to seal the win as Atkins claimed his hat-trick try and Carvell also touched down against his former club.

Warrington put the seal on what was a convincing victory in the end as Chris Bridge sent Monaghan over for a try eight minutes from time.