Battling Eagles pay the price for missed chances at Vikings

Mark Aston’s men found themselves 22-0 down in the first half and despite their best efforts there was no way back.

Sheffield had the majority of possession in the opening exchanges but failed to capitalise. Instead it was the Vikings who opened the scoring when teenage full-back Danny Hulme crashed over from close range on nine minutes.

They increased their lead to 10-0 when second row Macgraff Leuluai found a hole on the left of the Eagles defence.

Further tries from Richard Varkulis and Kevin Penny put the Vikings 22 points clear but Sheffield pulled six points back when Widnes failed to deal with a restart kick allowing centre Jamie Cording to cross for a try converted by Simon Brown.

A scoot over from dummy-half by Kyle Wood two minutes into the second half looked to have brought the Eagles back into the contest but the good work was undone when Kurt Haggerty found his way over the whitewash at the other end to make it 28-12.

Sheffield needed to score next but just when it looked as though they would, Penny snatched an interception on his own line and raced the length of the field for a Widnes six-pointer.

The Eagles refused to throw the towel in and a move from a tap penalty saw Menzie Yere go over from 30 metres.

The see-saw scoring continued when Dave Allen made it 38-18 in his side’s favour.

Brown’s late score gave Sheffield a sniff of a bonus point but time was against them.

A last desperate attempt to get something from the game came to nought as the ball went to ground and the Eagles crossed back to the east of the Pennines empty-handed.

Widnes: Hulme; Flynn, Ropati, Gardner, Penny; I’Anson, Mellor; Kavanagh, T Coyle, Pickersgill, Leuluai, Finnigan, Haggerty. Substitutes: Varkulis, Allen, Crosby, J Coyle.

Sheffield: Taulapapa; Finigan, Yere, Cording, Bergin; Laulu-Togagae, Brown; Howieson, Henderson, Stringer, Szostak, Green, Hirst. Substitutes: Rowe, Hepworth, Wood, Hanson.

Referee: J Leahy (RFL).

S Wales Scorpions 32 Keighley Cougars 24

Keighley Cougars’ automatic promotion hopes hit another blow after suffering their fourth defeat in a row, this time 32-24 to South Wales Scorpions in Caerphilly as the Welsh secured a vital win, their first in three games.

“We gave ourselves too much to do,” said Cougars’ coach Jason Demetriou.

“We were dreadful in the first half, borderline embarrassing. Some of the errors we came up with were disgraceful.

“Scorpions did well, they completed their sets and credit to them the way they shifted the ball. Some of our errors were amateurish to be honest.

“Training was awesome this week but it’s the same players making the same errors week on week and it’s costing the team dearly.”

Cougars actually took the lead on five minutes. New signing George Elliot intercepted a pass and ran 70 metres to the line for a perfect start to his debut. Danny Lawton missed the kick.

Scorpions hit back straight away when Steve Parry went over from close range. Jamie Murphy converted to make the score 6-4.

And after that, Cougars didn’t ever regain the lead. Scorpions went 22-4 ahead at the interval thanks to tries from Christiaan Roets, Dalton Grant and Andrew Gay.

Cougars again opened the scoring in the second half through James Hutchinson but Scorpions restored the balance straight away after Casey Bromilow charged down a kick and ran 50 metres to the line.

Ben Sagar and Demetriou each went over to bring the score back to 28-18 but a Jamie Murphy try on 62 minutes settled things for the Welsh.

The South Wales defence continued to excel. Man of the match Murphy holding James Feather up over the line.

But they finally cracked with ten minutes remaining as substitute Ryan Benjafield scored from dummy half with Lawton converting.

Scorpions wanted to extend the lead further as Dalton Grant and Curtis Cunningham both had opportunities, but in the end, the chances were irrelevant as they held on for a vital win. The Cougars gained a bonus point thanks to that last try but it wasn’t what they needed to keep up a serious promotion charge.

South Wales: Murphy, Grant, Philip, Bateman, Cunningham, Gay, Bromilow, Burke, Parry, Rafferty, Roets, Lloyd, Wildbore. Substitutes: Reece, Dallimore, Clough, C. Davies.

Keighley: Haythornthwaite, Hutchinson, Lawton, Normington, Elliot, Demetriou, Heliwell, Shickell, Feather, Law, Cartledge, Pursglove, Sagar. Substitutes: Coleman, Jones, Rawlins, Benjafield.

Referee: P Brooks (RFL).

Robbie Hunter-Paul came off the bench to make a try-scoring return from neck surgery for Leigh in their 36-14 Co-operative Championship victory at Toulouse.

Martyn Ridyard scored the visitors’ first try in the ninth minute and, although that was cancelled out by Sylvain Houles, Dean McGilvray crossed on the half-hour and Hunter-Paul added a 33rd-minute try to help Leigh establish an 18-6 interval lead.

Further tries after the break from Jamie Ellis, Mick Nanyn and James Taylor put the result beyond doubt and dashed any hopes Toulouse harboured of a late comeback following two tries in five minutes from Yoan Tisseyre and Gregory White just after the hour.

Doncaster 40 London Skolars 22

Two tries from outstanding centre Nev Morrison helped Doncaster chalk up their fourth victory in a row over much-improved Skolars.

Morrison had an excellent game for the home side, along with Scott Spaven and powerful prop Dominic Dee and was unlucky not to record a hat-trick of touchdowns.

He chased a kick from Spaven on the stroke of half time and grounded the ball in the corner but the referee ruled he had been marginally offside.

Doncaster were pushed all the way by a London side that started better and snatched the lead with a splendid solo try from fullback James Anthony in the fifth minute.

Morrison levelled the scores when he rounded off a slick handling move seven minutes later and Doncaster edged in front in the 19th minute when Jack Healy charged over the line.

Stand-off Mourad Kriouache hit back for Skolars in the 25th minute but a powerful run from Craig Robinson resulted in the Dons taking an 18-10 interval lead.

David Williams narrowed the gap to two points with a try early in the second half, improved by Dylan Skee, but the visitors became frustrated when Doncaster refused to buckle and some niggling tackles ensued.

Doncaster kept their discipline better and made the visitors pay with four tries in 16 minutes to wrap up the points.

Dee scored a fine try after 55 minutes and Morrison, Chris Spurr and Carl Hughes all charged over in quick succession.

London battled to the finish with Ben Bolger crossing over four minutes from time but Doncaster finished worthy winners.

Doncaster: Butterfield, Colton, Coady, Morrison, Sanderson, Fawcett, Spaven, Scott, Ely, Dee, Spurr, Lawton, Edwards. Substitutes: Carbutt, Robinson, Kesik, Hughes.

London Skolars: Anthony, Small, Brown, Colleran, Adebisi, Kriouache, Skee, Aggrey, Honor, Williams, Obuchowski, Bolger, Purslow. Substitutes: Gee, Aldam, Clement-Pascall, Thomas.

Referee: C Halloran (Dewsbury).