Widnes Vikings booked their place in the 1895 Cup semi-finals after a thrilling comeback victory over Newcastle Thunder at Robin Park Arena.
It was the visitors who made the quicker start when Noah Whittingham burst through the line and handed off to Myles Harrison, who raced away to score after four minutes.
Eight minutes later, Newcastle doubled their advantage. A miscued kick from Nathan Connell allowed Newcastle to scoop up the ball and dash three quarters of the field to score.
Four minutes before half-time, Newcastle were in for their third, smartly moving the ball from right to left which resulted in a walk-in for Brad Ward. The try was converted to give Thunder an 18-0 lead at half-time.
Allan Coleman’s side made a positive start to the second half when Jack Billington took a hand-off from Leon Hayes and crashed over just two minutes after the restart.
Newcastle then stretched their advantage back out to three scores after kicking a penalty from close range.
Ten minutes later, Max Roberts made his way through the Newcastle line and shrugged off a defender to wrestle the ball over and kick-start the Widnes comeback.
The Vikings then went back-to-back. Joe Edge was first to rise to a high kick and quickly handed off to Tom Gilmore, who then gave it inside to Danny Langtree for a four-pointer under the posts.
Five minutes later, Widnes hit the front when Sam Wilde found himself on the end of a short pass from Leon Hayes and scurried away from the Newcastle defenders, all the way into the corner, to give the Vikings the lead for the first time in the game.
Two minutes from time, a clever pass on the inside from Gilmore was finished off by captain Jack Owens to make sure of the comeback and book Widnes’ place in the 1895 Cup semi-finals.
The draw for the last four will be announced at 4pm on Monday afternoon.
Trylights
Teams and scorers
Widnes Vikings: Connell, Taylor, Owens, Edge, Ince, Hayes, Gilmore, Murray, Johnstone, Langtree, Roberts, Wilde, Hall. Interchanges: Lyons, Fozard, Billington, Houghton.
Tries: Billington, Roberts, Wilde, Langtree, Owens
Goals: Hayes (5)
Newcastle Thunder: Lipp, Djeukessi, Ferreira, Harrison, Ward, Williams, Pemberton, Antrobus, Inman, Santi, Reynolds, Whittingham, Cook. Interchanges: Ta’ai, Jackson, Clark, Smith.
Tries: Harrison, Ferreira, Ward
Goals: Harrison (4)
Post-match reaction
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