First Utlity Super League XIX - Round 10 Review

Round 10 of the First Utility Super League was the Easter Monday games where players back up from playing on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

Saints rested a number of key players as they dropped off the top-of -the-league after suffering a second defeat over the Easter period.

The Rhinos moved top with a strong defensive effort over Salford Red Devils.

Spare a thought for the Bradford Bulls who were severely depleted and suffered a record defeat at the hands of Wigan Warriors.

So below we review all the action:-

Huddersfield Giants 36

Tries: Broughton, Lawrence, Ta'ai, Cudjoe, Chan, Lunt
Goals: Brough 6

Wakefield Wildcats 16

Tries: Sammut, Walshaw, Molloy
Goals: Sammut 2

Att: 5,487

Huddersfield Giants finally claimed thier first home win of the season as they saw off Wakefield Wildcats at the John Smith's Stadium.

Huddersfield, back to form after a good at Salford on Friday, made a fast start and took the lead when Leroy Cudjoe got Jodie Broughton over at the corner after eight minutes.

Jarrad Sammut, playing at full-back, got the Wildcats on terms before Michael Lawrence took Shaun Lunt's pass to make it 12-6.

Big forward Ukuma Ta'ai scored the first and Cudjoe swooped on a careless pass by stand-off Paul Sykes to run in a 50-metre interception try for the next.

Eleven minutes after the resumption Jason Chan took Brough's pass to charge over for the host's fifth try.

Led by Sammut Wakefield came back into the game as ex Giant Jon Molloy took the full back pass to cross.

However, Lunt added try number six late on as Huddersfield finally broke thier duck at home this year to inflict a sixth successive defeat on the Wildcats who remain third from bottom four points clear of the relegation zone.

Hull FC 40

Tries: Shaul 2, Crooks, Thompson, Rankin 2, Miller
Goals: Crooks 6

London Broncos 4

Tries: Caton-Brown

Att: 9,538

Hull FC got back on track with a comfortable win over London Broncos at the KC Stadium.

After suffering a narrow late loss at City neighbours Rover, Hull FC could not have asked for a favourable fixture as they took on the London Broncos who were on a ten match loosing run

It took 10 minutes for The Black and Whites to get things underway as Jacob Miller setup Jamie Shaul on a 50-meter run to the corner.

Good footwork by Ben Crooks led to home scoring the second touchdown of the game and the Londoners should have closed the gap but Denny Solomona dropped the ball with no one in front of him.

Jordan Thompson made the visitors pay by powering over the line for thier home try and Jordan Rankin made it 22-0 at the break with another effort from 40 meters out.

Solomona's afternoon got worse after the break as he was sin-binned for holding Miller down and then the ex West Tiger got over for one himself.

Now in total control Shaul scored a fine second when he chipped over the top of Mataitonga and collected it to touchdown.

Mason Caton-Brown burrowed over from close range to score a consolation for the well beaten Broncos, but Rankin made sure of a big win for Hull by adding his sides seventh try 10 minutes from the end.

Leeds Rhinos 32

Tries: Sinfield, Hardaker, Burrow, Jones-Bishop, Hall, Briscoe
Goals: Sinfield 4

Salford Red Devils 4

Tries: Tomkins

Att: 14,013

Leeds Rhinos moved to the summit of the First Utility Super League with another strong defensive performance to get the better of Salford Red Devils at Headingley Carnegie Stadium.

The Rhinos rested Kallum Watkins and Ian Kirke, as Salford were without Tony Puletua, Tim Smith and Adrian Morley.

On six minutes Kevin Sinfield crossed after exchanging passes with ex Penrith Panther forward Mitch Achurch.

Both sides missed chances but the Red Devils began to have more possession and superb last ditch scrambling defence kept the visitors out.

However 12 minutes from the break, on loan Wigan hooker, Logan Tomkins touched down from dummy half and this gave Salford a big lift and they missed another golden chance when Stuart Howarth was held up by strong Leeds defence.

The visitors continued to turn to dominate but trailed 6-4 at Half Time.

At the start of the second period Leeds extend thier lead to 12-4 when Tom Briscoe offloaded to Ben Jones-Bishop who ran 80 metres and threw a pass to ground, which was collected and finished by Zak Hardaker.

Jones-Bishop sent ex Red Devil Joel Moon clear and in support was Rob Burrow as the Rhinos had the game under control.

15 minutes from time it was all over for Salford as another brilliant length of the field effort was setup by Hardaker who collected a kick and broke away to get the supporting Jones-Bishop over the line for try number four.

Hall squeezed in at the corner and Briscoe collected a bouncing kick to race 60 metres for the final try of the afternoon as Leeds Rhinos moved top of the table for the first time this year on the back of only conceding 82 points in thier 10 games played so far.

Widnes Vikings 40

Tries: Hanbury 2, Isa, Gerrard, Flynn, Dean, Leuluai
Goals: Tickle 5, Owens

St Helens 26

Tries: Soliola, Masoe, Wellens, Makinson, Hohaia
Goals: Makinson 3

Att: 7,706

Widnes Vikings continued thier brilliant home form as they dumped St Helens off the top of table with a great win at the Select Security Stadium.

Both coaches made the changes and it was the Vikings who started superbly as they hit Saints with two scores in the opening quarter.

First, Rhys Hanbury touched down after good work by Kevin Brown and the second came after Jack Owens chimed into the line and passed to Cameron Phelps who sent in Willie Isa for a spectacular effort out wide.

Tickle added the extras but St Helens found thier form and reduced the arrears thorugh Sia Soliola after a great run from young forward Andre Savelio.

Lloyd White sent Alex Gerrard under the sticks as the hosts hit back but once again Saints showed thier quality by hitting the hosts with a two try burst in as many minutes.

Big Samoan Mose Masoe bulldozed his way over and veteran Paul Wellens was on the shoulder of Josh Jones to score just before the break to make it 18-16 in the Vikings favour.

Paddy Flynn finished off some good work by Chris Dean as Widnes extended thier lead. As normal this year Saints would not go away with Tommy Makinson grounding the ball out wide to put them right back in the contest at 28-20.

Dean went over in the corner as Danny Tickle's goal made it 34-20 going into the last ten minutes of the game Lance Hohaia touched down with Makinson's conversion setting up a Grandstand finish

However, the Vikings withstood everything the visitors threw at them and finally won the game when MacGraff Leuluai touchdown at the end to complete an historic first win at the Select Security Stadium for Widnes in the Super League and inflict a second successive defeat on St Helens over the Easter period.

Wigan Warriors 84

Tries: Green 2, Gelling 2, O'Loughlin, Hampshire, Farrell, Hughes, Powell, Bateman, Goulding, Williams, Manfredi, Dudson
Goals: Hampshire 8, Williams 4

Bradford Bulls 6

Tries: Gale
Goals: Gale

Att: 15,529

Wigan Warriors ran in 15-tries as they thrashed an under strength Bradford Bulls at the DW Stadium.

The Champions were on a high after ending great rivals St Helens 100% record on Good Friday and they expected a comfortable win over Bradford Bulls who struggled to put 17 fit players out.

The Warriors took just five minutes to open the scoring with Blake Green going over from close range. Next to score in this first half onslaught was Anthony Gelling and after 15 minutes it was 16-0 when Sean O'Loughlin scored next to the posts.

George Williams and Green combined to send Ryan Hampshire through a massive gap to touch down, and then moment's later young full-back made it a double after good work by Liam Farrell

Farrell, Jack Hughes and Sam Powell all went over before the break as Wigan finished any hopes for Bradford by leading 46-0 at the interval.

Hampshire then setup ex Bull John Bateman to score against his old club as normal service resumed.

Poor Bradford were been ripped apart as Darrell Goulding and Green took the score past the sixty point mark. Wigan's 12th try was scored by Williams as Gelling, Dom Manfredi and Gail Dudson also got on the scoresheet as the rout continued.

Thirteen minutes from time the Bulls finally had something to show when Luke Gale stepped his way over for their first and only try of the game as Bradford suffered thier heaviest every defeat in the club history.

Castleford Tigers 40

Tries: Clare 2, Shenton 3, Ellis, Owen
Goal: Sneyd 6

Warrington Wolves 6

Tries: Monaghan
Goals: Ratchford

Att: 6,853

Castleford Tigers continued thier impressive form this season by destroying Warrington Wolves at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle.

The Tigers have been the surprise team of the year by staying in the top three throughout and they faced a test as they entertained a Warrington Wolves side who had a good win over Widnes on Friday.

Warrington made a good start but some good defence kept them out and on 14 minutes after Stefan Ratchford was penalised for holding, the home side took the lead when James Clare touched down from Michael Shenton's offload.

The Wolves had a bit of fortune when Michael Monaghan charged down a loose kick from Marc Sneyd to score which turned out to be thier only points of the game.

However, the Tigers responded magnificently roared back to lead 18-6 at halftime thanks to a brace from Shenton.

In the second half, Classy Cas were impressive as they showed real skill in taking the game to Warrington. Jordan Tansey carried the ball 60 metres and this lead to Clare crashing over for his second score of the afternoon.

Jamie Ellis then exchanged passes with Weller Hauraki before touching down as the Tigers ended any hopes for Wolves.

There was still more to come from CAS as Richard Owen dived over before Shenton completed his hat-trick to crown his impressive game and move his team up to second on the Super League ladder as Warrington suffered a fifth defeat this season.

Catalan Dragons 37

Tries: Escare, Whitehead 2, Oldfield 2, Millard
Goals: Bosc 6
Drop Goal: Bosc

Hull KR 24

Tries: Eden, Cox, Caro 2
Goals: Burns 4

Att: 9,863

Catalan Dragons made it four wins on the bounce as they ended in form Hull KR winning run with a good victory at the Gilbert Brutus Stadium in Perpignan.

The Dragons opened the scoring after four minutes with Morgan Escare racing 50 metres to score underneath the posts. Catalans doubled that lead nine minutes later as Elliott Whitehead who chase to his kick to score. Thomas Bosc added his second conversion.

Michael Oldfield touched down to score try number three in the right corner as the French outfit moved into a 16-0 lead after twenty minutes.

But, Rovers gradually worked themselves back into the game and stunned the hosts by scoring three unanswered tries in the final 13 minutes of the first half to lead 18-16.

Travis Burns offloaded to the supporting Greg Eden for the first and Jordan Cox pounced on Lopini Paea's error for the next score.

Two minutes before the interval, the comeback was complete as Omari Caro finished off a fast flowing move in the left hand corner.

After the break both sides traded tries, Daryl Millard sneaking in at the corner for Catalans and Caro for his second for the visitors.

It was the French side who suddenly gained the upper hand and led by Pryce they began to dominate. Bosc and Ben Pomeroy sent in Oldfield for his second of the night to see the Catalans regain the lead at 26-24.

Then Whitehead made it a double before two penalties by Bosc gave the Dragons the match winnign lead which was extended by the French half-back as he kicked a last second one-pointer to move Catalan up to tenth place.