Magic Weekend: Fetuli Talanoa scores hat-trick as Hull FC win derby
Last Updated: 01/06/15 12:59pm
Fetuli Talanoa lit up St James' Park with a Magic Weekend hat-trick as Hull buried the memories of their Easter horror show by beating rivals Hull KR 46-20.
After Kevin Brown scored a treble for Widnes in the opening match, Talanoa made sure he was not the only player to celebrate an individual day to remember in one of the sport's marquee fixtures.
Coach Lee Radford was brutal in his assessment of his players after a 20-6 home humbling against KR last month, but there was little for anyone of a Hull FC persuasion to grumble about after their ruthless display on Tyneside.
The eight-try win was Hull's seventh from nine since their miserable Easter Thursday loss and also a record win for them against their bitter rivals in the Super League era.
It was an outcome that rarely looked in doubt too, short of when Josh Mantellato cancelled out Kirk Yeaman's seventh-minute opener - the Hull centre's 150th try for the club.
At that point it looked as though Rovers were capable of matching Hull but it quickly became clear that was not the case.
Hull added a second through Talanoa's first - a walk in at the corner after a Kieran Dixon error - and with halves Leon Pryce and Marc Sneyd orchestrating things well, Hull were dictating the pace.
Pace was the operative word on 24 minutes as Rovers bombed a fine chance to level again. Terry Campese and Kris Welham created a two-on-one break but with neither man having the legs to go all the way were unable to turn possession into points.
Their failure to score gave Hull the ball back and after Pryce broke, Gareth Ellis found himself with a simple task of going through a gap for a routine try, with Sneyd's second goal putting Hull firmly in command.
Rovers looked out of ideas but Hull soon gave them one, Sneyd's pass falling only to Dixon to turned on the pace and went the length of the field to reduce the gap to four points at 16-12.
Good fortune could not hide the deficiencies in their defence, though, and they were soon overpowered again, Mark Minichiello doing the damage from close in and Sneyd making it 22-12 at the break.
There was no change in Rovers' ability to get close to Hull after the break either. Five minutes in and Talanoa had a second, Yeaman giving him a walk-in by the flag, and Rovers appeared to have waved the white flag by this point with Jordan Rankin going through off a Danny Houghton break 60 seconds later.
Sneyd continued to top up the tries and his side were cruising at 34-12 ahead. But perhaps as a result of that position of command they lapsed allowed Ken Sio to escape from his own line and lay on a fine second for Dixon.
That gave Rovers the belief a comeback was possible and with 22 minutes left Mantellato added to that, brushing off Tom Lineham for a second, but his inability to add the extras from wide out means they remained three scores behind at 34-20.
Regardless, Hull quickly returned to the front foot and Talanoa snapped up his third, going in after initially stumbling, before Yeaman bookended the scoring with his second. Sneyd converted both to finish with seven from eight attempts.
