Report: Warrington 12-19 Hull FC

An error-prone Warrington fell to a fourth defeat of the season as Hull FC came away with the two points from the Halliwell Jones Stadium on a frustrating day.
There was just one change to the starting 13 from last week's win with Ben Westwood coming in at loose forward in place of Matt Davis, as I predicted in my Sweet 17 article. Wire made a perfect start to the game when a high kick from Blake Austin caught Kieran Buchanan out and Toby King was on hand to cross over and score the first points of the game, with Stefan Ratchford converting the try for a 6-0 lead.

The lead was extremely short-lived though, when Daryl Clark allowed Hull's kick-off to bounce and it arrived into the hands of the dangerous Albert Kelly. After just about seeing the set out, a penalty was conceded and Mickey Paea crashed over the line, beating the challenges of Patton and Ben Currie. Marc Sneyd's simple conversion levelled the scores, before the former Castleford man sent a neat grubber kick into the goal area two minutes afterwards, a kick that wasn't dealt with, which allowed Scott Taylor to touch down under the posts. Sneyd kicked his second conversion for a 6-12 lead, and it got worse for Wire six minutes later when Hull kept the ball alive with a series of offloads, before Kelly charged over the line, making light work of Currie, Hill and Ratchford to cross right under the posts, giving Sneyd an easy conversion for an 6-18 lead. 

The rest of the first half was disappointing, with Warrington coming close on a few occasions, but failing to have the efficiency to get through. Ben Murdoch-Masila looked to have scored just before the break, but Super League's comedy referee James Child ruled it out for a knock-on. Jamie Shaul made big tackles to deny Bryson Goodwin and Josh Charnley tries, before a major brawl kicked off after 50 minutes with Jake Connor claiming Declan Patton had bit his hand - which Child placed on report. Five minutes later, Austin grabbed himself a try after two lovely sidesteps to create the space for himself to cross, a try which Stefan Ratchford converted for an 12-18 deficit.

Connor found himself at the centre of controversy once more when he threw a blatant punch at Goodwin and was sent to the sin-bin, which seemed a generous punishment for something so violent. Sneyd kicked a drop-goal for a seven point advantage, which meant we needed two sores to win. Chances came and went, but there simply wasn't enough quality in front of the line to convert the opportunities. Patton was withdrawn by Steve Price and Ratchford moved into the halves, with Goodwin going to full back and Sitaleki Akauola on the wing, a reshuffle which was about as crazy as the finish to the game - Akauola went on a stunning run from a wide area and was taken to the ground. Murdoch-Masila opted to run in to the situation for no good reason and became the second man in the sin-bin of the afternoon.

A disappointing day in both attack and defence. The ten-minute spell which saw us concede 18 points was a killer, as was the Murdoch-Masila disallowed try. In terms of the table this doesn't do us much damage, although it is concerning to see us put in a poor performance at home ahead of Magic Weekend and the Challenge Cup Quarter-Finals. It was very interesting to see Patton taken off at the end, he certainly had a very poor game today, and with the nature of his offence likely to receive a ban, we could be looking at a change in half back, which I think is now a necessity. James Child continued his anti-Warrington weekend with an atrocious refereeing performance, although too many simple errors and a lack of creativity were what ruined our chances today. The usual top performers of Austin and Clark both had hit-and-miss games (though were still better than most of the team). 

Ah well. On we go. Wigan next week, at Anfield. Check out my player rankings from today's defeat and have a look at my blog in the coming days for my Magic Weekend preview. Don't be too down, just remember...

It's always our year.

Daniel (@aloosewire)