An eventful game which saw 11 tries, a red card and 3 yellow cards brought down the curtain on our U19s season as they were beaten 40-16 by Wakefield Trinity U19s.
The early stages saw the Widnes right edge exposed and centre Jack Croft was the player who was causing the problems. He created a try for Iain Oakley before scoring himself minutes later and with Connor Bailey converting one of the tries, Trinity had raced into a 10 point lead.
Widnes were struggling to get into any kind of rhythm as handling errors thwarted everything they tried to do.
Brad Calland’s 80 metre run gave them a great attacking position and eventually they got on the scoreboard when Ollie Brookes went over in the corner. Joe Edge landed an excellent touchline conversion.
Widnes continued to waste good opportunities, and were made to pay as Wakefield scored again when Harry Dodd crashed over. Bailey added the extras.
HALF-TIME: Wakefield Trinity 16-6 Widnes Vikings
After a somewhat ordinary first half, the next 40 minutes was a fiesty, indisciplined affair.
Early in the half Tony Fenlon found himself on the end of a robust tackle which saw the half back land on his neck. Play was held up for some considerable time and whilst there was no malice in the tackle, the incident only resulted in a penalty and was put on report.
When play restarted, Widnes soon reduced the arrears when a great pass put Paul Cragg under the posts. Edge made it a four point game with the conversion, but that was as close as Widnes would get.
Tempers started to flare and yellow cards were brandished to Trinity prop Moris Kamano and Ben Davies.
Another three penalties quickly followed and the last one resulted in Ollie Brookes being dismissed for abusing the referee.
Trinity immediately took full advantage and scored two tries from Harrison Burrows and Jordan Schofield.
The game briefly settled down and Jack Croft scored a second try to make the game virtually safe for his side.
Another melee resulted in a penalty for Wakefield and another Vikings indiscretion saw Burrows get his second try, which Bailey converted from the touchline to make it 34-12.
Josh Wilde was the next to incur the wrath of the referee and his yellow card saw Widnes again down to 11 players.
Despite this, they were next to score as Ben Davies touched down in between the corner flag and posts.
With the seconds ticking away, prop Schofield gave an outrageous dummy which opened up the Widnes defence and his pass put hooker Lewis Teale under the posts. Bailey completed the scoring with the conversion.
It’s been a season for the U19s in which has seen six players from this squad make their first team debuts.
Jayden Hatton scored three tries early on before becoming a regular fixture in the first team squad. Calum O’Neill, Ben Davies, Jacob Dugdale, Joe Edge and Lewis Else are the other debutants.
Whilst this may have disrupted team selection for the U19s, it is testament to the coaching team that players have been able to make that step up and gain first team experience.
FULL-TIME: Wakefield Trinity 40-16 Widnes Vikings
Wakefield Trinity: Bobby Darbyshire, Iain Oakley, Oliver Farrar, Jack Croft, Harrison Burrows, Connor Bailey, Owen Hughes, Jordan Schofield, Lewis Teale, Moris Kamano, Harry Dodd, Jordan Jones, Jay Haywood-Scriven. SUBS: Daniel Barcoe, Robbie Butterworth, Oliver Hill, Calum Hudson.
Tries: Burrows 2, Croft 2, Dodd, Oakley, Schofield, Teale.
Goals: Bailey 4/8.
Widnes Vikings: Joe Edge, Liam Barnes, Billy Glover, Liam Brinksman, Ollie Brookes, Brad Calland, Tony Fenlon, Will Tilleke, Connor Davies-Aspey, Calum O’Neill, Jayden Hatton, Josh Wilde, Ben Davies. SUBS: Paul Cragg, Dec Baker, Robbie Ascroft, Cameron Reilly.
Tries: Brookes, Cragg, Davies.
Goals: Calland 1/1, Edge 1/1, Davies 0/1.
HT: 14-6 FT: 40-16 Pens: 11-6
