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Hull FC vs Warrington (H) 22 - 24 L |
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29/06/08
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KC Stadium
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Steve Ganson
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Warrington Wolves
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22 - 24
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Chris Hicks slotted an injury-time conversion to hand Warrington Wolves a thrilling victory over Hull FC at the KC Stadium.
The full-back held his nerve to convert Matt King’s try just five
metres in from the touchline and ensure his side’s revival under James
Lowes continued.
It was tough on Richard Agar’s Hull team, who had looked to have kept
their frail hopes of reaching the play-offs alive with a 74th-minute
try from Kirk Yeaman that appeared to have ended Warrington’s
resistance.
But the much-maligned King - cited by many as a failure since his
switch from Melbourne - eventually made his class tell late on when he
overpowered the wing-centre partnership of Tom Briscoe and Jodie
Broughton, the two students who had manfully kept him quiet all game.
James Lowes named England internationals Martin Gleeson and Adrian
Morley on his bench less than 48 hours after they starred in the win
against France, while squad member Ben Westwood also took his place
among the replacements.
The Wolves were disappointing in the opening half, though, and the
Black and Whites scrapped hard for a deserved 12-6 interval lead,
handed to them by two tries from Shaun Berrigan.
In torrential conditions the home side started the better with Matt
Sing and Danny Tickle both creating half-breaks, although it took until
the 13th minute for Berrigan to get the scoreboard running.
His first try in 11 matches was a well-worked effort too, swapping
passes with Yeaman close to the left touchline. His second was a more
opportunistic effort, darting over from the dummy-half position.
Sandwiched in between Berrigan’s fourth and fifth tries of the season
was a ninth score of the year for Warrington’s flying winger Kevin
Penny in what was one of only two serious attacks the Wolves mounted in
the first half.
Once Penny had snapped up a horribly wayward pass from Danny Washbrook
there was little doubt he would eat up the length of the field and post
a score topped up by Hicks’ goal.
Hicks then missed a simple penalty that would have nosed his team
ahead, only for them to close the half behind and with 12 men as Paul
Rauhihi was sin-binned seconds before the hooter for dissent.
Their only other chance came late on too as Chris Riley was dumped in touch by Gareth Raynor as he looked set to score.
The Wolves returned after the interval full of vigour and were soon
level for a second time, Lee Briers shaking off the would-be tackle of
Sing to score next to the posts. Hicks added again added the
conversion.
Hull nearly regained the lead just two minutes later with a flowing
last-tackle move that went through seven pairs of hands until Adam
Dykes became one pair too many, before on-loan Leeds centre Broughton
did cross the line with a fine dogged effort. Tickle failed with the
goal.
Warrington fought back, taking the lead after Penny capitalised on
Garreth Carvell’s spillage to cross in the corner and Hicks made light
of his conversion failure by punting a penalty with 13 minutes
remaining.
Hicks did find his range to hand Warrington the lead with a penalty 13
minutes from the end before Raynor again denied Riley a score with
another fine tackle.
Hull then looked to have won it when Yeaman crashed over after a
wonderful move involving Sing and Dykes, only for King to respond in
kind leaving Hicks with the task of winning the game. |
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| Sing, Briscoe, Broughton, Yeaman, Raynor, Washbrook, Dykes, Dowes, Berrigan, Carvell, Manu, Tickle, Radford. |
Hicks, Riley, Grix, King, Penny, Briers, Monaghan, Parker, Clarke, Rauhihi, L. Anderson, Blythe, Harrison. |
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