WARRINGTON WOLVES 16 HULL FC 28
KASEY SMITH, Halliwell Jones Stadium, Saturday
HULL FC survived a scare in the second half to earn a hard-fought win over pre-game favourites Warrington and climb back up to second in Super League.
They were ruthless at the Halliwell Jones, pouncing on every Warrington mistake to give themselves an almost unassailable lead in the first 40.
Warrington were a different team in the second half, as they hunted down Hull’s 22-point lead which would have left Sam Burgess wondering why this wasn’t on show from the start.
They conceded five first-half penalties, with Hull FC not having to produce anything monumental for such a lead.
It has been some transformation for the Airlie Birds who won just three games in the whole of 2024, but now, under the stewardship of John Cartwright, they look like one of the most exciting sides in the competition.
The Black and Whites have not featured in an end-of-season play-off campaign since 2020, but must surely be serious contenders should form of this ilk be maintained.
Warrington left it late against Leeds a fortnight ago to snatch a win, but too many mistakes were made in a below-par first half to put Hull FC sufficiently under the pump and give themselves any chance of another comeback. Marc Sneyd uncharacteristically missing all his conversions didn’t help either.
The first Warrington mistake was a Matty Ashton knock-on from a huge defence-splitting Aidan Sezer kick and, direct from the scrum, Tom Briscoe went over in the corner. Simple stuff, but well executed.
Warrington could not re-group, and Davy Litten was the beneficiary of a Cade Cust diagonal kick which sailed over the leaping George Williams to land in the young centre’s path as he grounded to put them two scores in front.
A similar right-field shift involving Cust and Sezer then saw Briscoe grab a second and, just before the half-hour mark, that same cross-field Cust kick caused more problems for Warrington when Rodrick Tai knocked-on in front of his line.
That resulted in Herman Ese’ese striding through four Wolves tacklers to make it 20-0 – his sixth consecutive try-scoring game, equalling the summer-era record for a prop.
Wolves were allowed back in after Hull conceded back-to-back penalties and Williams scored to give them a lifeline.
But just when Warrington thought they had got themselves back in the contest, Litten came up with a moment of magic when he chipped a kick for himself to score his second on the stroke of half-time.
Warrington came with intent in the second half, and took full advantage of a Jack Ashworth sin-binning for a late tackle by scoring seconds later as Williams darted through a gap to give Josh Thewlis a try in the corner.
A costly Jordan Rapana unforced knock-on allowed Warrington to further reduce the deficit when Matty Ashton produced his trademark acrobatics to go over in the corner.
Ashton grabbed another, off the back of a Paul Vaughan line-break, to bring Hull’s advantage back to just ten points.
Warrington, though, ran out of time, and Will Pryce had the last word when he slotted over a penalty late on.
GAMESTAR: Aidan Sezer’s kicking game was a real outlet for Hull FC.
GAMEBREAKER: Tom Briscoe’s huge tackle to deny an almost certain Warrington try when they were mounting pressure gave Hull FC confidence they could hold on.
HIGHLIGHT REEL: Matty Ashton’s diving try, something we have become so accustomed to seeing, was sublime.
ALBERT GOLDTHORPE POINTS
3 pts Aidan Sezer (Hull FC)
2 pts Tom Briscoe (Hull FC)
1 pt George Williams (Warrington)
MATCHFACTS
WOLVES
1 Matt Dufty
2 Josh Thewlis
11 Ben Currie
4 Rodrick Tai
5 Matty Ashton
6 George Williams
35 Marc Sneyd
16 Zane Musgrove
9 Danny Walker
10 Paul Vaughan
21 Adam Holroyd
12 Lachlan Fitzgibbon
8 James Harrison
Subs (all used)
14 Sam Powell
15 Joe Philbin
13 Luke Yates
17 Jordy Crowther
18th man (not used)
19 Stefan Ratchford
Also in 21-man squad
3 Toby King
24 Max Wood
26 Dan Russell
Tries: Williams (35), Josh Thewlis (49), Ashton (61, 68)
Goals: Sneyd 0/4
HULL FC
6 Will Pryce
5 Tom Briscoe
1 Jordan Rapana
20 Davy Litten
22 Lewis Martin
14 Cade Cust
7 Aidan Sezer
8 Herman Ese’ese
9 Amir Bourouh
40 Liam Knight
3 Zak Hardaker
4 Ed Chamberlain
13 John Asiata
Subs (all used)
16 Yusuf Aydin
17 Jack Ashworth
23 Logan Moy
39 Sam Eseh
18th man (not used)
31 Hugo Salabio
Also in 21-man squad
27 Matty Laidlaw
30 Callum Kemp
32 Will Kirby
Tries: Briscoe (12, 21), Litten (16, 40), Ese’ese (30)
Goals: Pryce 4/6
Sin bin: Ashworth (46) – late tackle
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-4, 0-10, 0-14, 0-20, 4-20, 4-26; 8-26, 8-28, 12-28, 16-28
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Wolves: George Williams; Hull FC: Aidan Sezer
Penalty count: 8-6
Half-time: 4-26
Referee: Aaron Moore
Attendance: 11,023
