Widnes Vikings marked their long-awaited return to the DCBL Stadium in style, claiming a 54-0 victory over Halifax Panthers.
After some early pressure, it took the Vikings 15 minutes to open the scoring. Joe Edge got himself on the end of a short pass from Jack Owens and walked in to open his account for the afternoon.
Ten minutes later, and the advantage was stretched, Widnes moving the ball from left to right for Ryan Ince to crash over for his first of the game.
After coming narrowly close to scoring from a line break 30 seconds earlier, Mike Butt’s persistence paid off, as he got himself a walk-in down the left edge.
Then came a flurry of Widnes tries just before the break. Ince bagged his second of the afternoon, Adam Lawton bowled his way over from close range, and then Ince got on the end of a clever chip from Tom Gilmore, before then providing a clever kick of his own, which was pounced on by Jack Owens to score the try of the afternoon, giving the Vikings a 32-0 lead at the break.
It took just 13 minutes of the second half for the scoring spree to continue, a clever pass from Gilmore finding Ince once again to complete his hat-trick.
The Vikings then went back-to-back as Edge shrugged off a Panthers defender and scurried in for the try, his second of the afternoon.
Five minutes from time, Edge became the second Viking to complete his hat-trick, bursting through the line before applying a cheeky step to fool the Panthers full-back, which left him acres of space to race through and score.
Just before the full-time hooter, Butt popped a short pass off to Owens, who raced in for his second of the afternoon to round off a thoroughly dominant display from Allan Coleman’s side.
Teams and scorers
Widnes Vikings: Connell, Butt, Edge, Owens, Ince, Hayes, Gilmore, Murray, Johnstone, McWhirter, Roberts, Wilde, Hall. Interchanges: Fozard, Langtree, Lawton, Chapelhow.
Tries: Edge (3), Ince (3), Butt, Lawton, Owens (2)
Goals: Hayes (7)
Halifax Panthers: Crooks, Will, Forster, McComb, Lindsey, Soric, O’Brien, Calcott, Halafihi, Salabio, McCarron, Fairbank, Connor Davies. Interchanges: Curtis Davies, Morgan, Gittens, Carter.
Tries:
Goals:
Post-match reaction
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