Report: Hull FC 12-63 Warrington

Oh. My. Word. Warrington turned on the style and produced a scintillating performance to dismantle Hull FC by 51 points in a wonderful evening at the KCOM Stadium. Blake Austin was in magic mode as he crossed for four tries, while there was a hat-trick for Josh Charnley as well. Here's my report from the best win of the season, and one of the best displays in years...

There were two changes to the matchday squad, with Danny Walker dropping out and Ryan Atkins missing the game due to illness. This meant returns to the squad for Tom Lineham and Harvey Livett, who hadn't played since Round Four and Two respectively. Lineham started on the wing in place of Jake Mamo, who moved into the centre to occupy Atkins' position. The rest of the starting line-up was the same, with Joe Philbin selected at loose forward again, while Livett was named on the bench.

Wire made a positive start to the game in terms of intensity and the away end was soon rocking when we took the lead after seven minutes. An exchange of flat passes between Philbin and Chris Hill found Austin. The halfback skilfully broke away from the tackle of Marc Sneyd before fighting past Hakim Miloudi and stretching backwards to place the ball down and score a brilliant opening try close to the posts. Stefan Ratchford made no mistake and Warrington had a six-point lead early on. Four minutes later Daryl Clark extended the lead with his third try of the season. On the fifth tackle, Clark ran from dummy half and surged through a gap in the Hull defence to score, a try which Ratchford duly converted. The third try came on 13 minutes, with Hill playing a clever short ball to Ratchford, who cut through the back line and from the next play, Austin played a delightful dummy out wide before sliding under the sticks for his second score, a beautiful try. Ratchford's third goal of the night made it 18-0. The boys in blue and yellow extended the lead when a brilliant offload from Hill set up a passing combination of Hughes and King, who duly sent Josh Charnley diving over in the corner for his first of the night. Ratchford missed his first goal attempt of the evening and the score was 22-0.

Warrington's fifth try of the evening coincidentally came from the fifth tackle, an Austin kick from way out completely fumbled by Josh Griffin, allowing Charnley to score an easy second. There was no mistake from Ratchford from the boot this time, giving Steve Price's team a 28-0 lead after only 22 minutes. The best moment of the night followed, with Austin receiving the ball in his own half and then slaloming through the beleaguered defence, showing some magical footwork to continue his run before dummying a pass and siding over to score the best try of the season so far, a piece of individual work that was a joy to behold. Ratchford converted Austin's moment of genius and the score was 34-0. Hull FC avoided the embarrassment of a whitewash when former Wire Joe Westermann, whose name was sung by the away fans, found Albert Kelly. Ratchford missed the tackle and Kelly forced his way over. Sneyd's conversion meant that the score was 6-34 at the half-time hooter.

Any worries over a second-half collapse similar to last week's at Wakefield were soon allayed when a minute after the break Ratchford cleverly broke free and found Ben Murdoch-Masila, who sidestepped a challenge and scored comfortably. Another conversion followed and the lead was extended again shortly afterwards. A lovely offload from Mike Cooper found Daryl Clark, who played the ball to the onrushing Blake Austin. The number six capped off an impeccable scoring display by once again selling a dummy that Hull FC obligingly bought, allowing the Aussie to stroll to the try line and grab his fourth of the game. A ball out wide on the left from Mamo found Tom Lineham, who forced his way over to mark his return to the team and to his former club with a try, making the score a resounding . 

Entering the final phase of the game, Wire were comfortable and were defending very well. One of the best team tries of the season was scored when yet another Austin dummy was purchased, which gave the very impressive Toby King the chance to score out wide, though he elected to pass to Charnley, who completed his hat-trick with ease, moving into a more central area to touch down to make Ratchford's kick easier. The full back converted once more to take the score to 56-6, before FC got their second score of the night through Jordan Lane as he found a rare gap in our defence to cross. Sneyd's conversion reduced the arrears to 44 points with ten minutes left. Tom Lineham scored a great interception try when getting on the end of a stray ball. The winger ran the length of the field and touched down to crack the 60-point barrier. Ratchford scored his ninth goal of the night, but it was Austin who had the final say on proceedings, banging over a drop goal to make it 63-12 with just seconds left. Austin said after the game that he took this option as practice for tight games which may require successful drop goals in the future.

Well, an utterly breathtaking performance, one that surely ranks among the Wire's best in recent years. The quality of our play was frightening at times and opposition players must be having nightmares about facing Blake Austin. This was our best display of the season by a mile and we showed real title credentials in both technical skill and the mentality to keep the intensity up in the second half, which was a world apart from what happened last week. On another note, Hull FC must be sick of playing us - our last two games have seen us beat them by an aggregate scoreline of 143-22! With seven wins from eight and a major statement performance, things are looking good. Attention now turns to London Broncos at home next week, before a heavyweight clash with St Helens.

A splendid night at the KCOM which saw the away fans in fine voice from the word go, with the travelling crowd recognising that they were witnessing a special display of rugby league. As well as Austin's magic, it was nice to see Lineham and Livett back in the team, with Lineham marking his return with two tries. The strength of our defence was a real boost too. All good signs. Make sure to check out my player rankings from the night, and I'll be building up to the London game early next week.

It's always our year.

Daniel (@aloosewire)