Widnes 40 Wakefield 8: Wildcats look well short of their previous top-eight form

Pat Ah Van went over twice while Rhys Hanbury, Matty Whitley, Corey Thompson, Stef Marsh and Lloyd White were also on the scoresheet as Widnes – heavily beaten in their opening two games – ran out 40-8 victors to claim their first win of the Super 8s.

The Wildcats replied through tries from Craig Hall and Ben Bishop-Jones but they looked a shadow of the side that had propelled them into the top eight and remain winless.

Widnes were three tries up after 20 minutes and they did not have to work that hard for what ended up being an unassailable lead.

Ah Van was sent in on the left after some quick hands led to an easy opening and then Hanbury burst onto a Kevin Brown short ball to touch down. The third try came in embarrassing fashion for lacklustre Wakefield as Jacob Miller missed a one-on-one with Whitley to allow the 20-year-old to go over.

With Wakefield struggling to build any forward momentum, the tries kept coming for the Vikings with Thompson adding a fourth before the interval after getting on the end of Whitley’s deft pass.

White landed his fourth conversion of the afternoon to make it 24-0 at the break and leave the outcome of the match all but decided.

Things did not improve much for the visitors after the break either and when Marsh eased over five minutes after half-time it was a case of how many more tries Widnes would plunder. The hosts got their sixth try four minutes later when White notched and his subsequent kick saw Widnes go 34-0 ahead. Wakefield finally had something to celebrate in the 56th minute when Hall shot over as the home side’s concentration dipped.

However, the Vikings hit back when Ah Van collected his second try of the afternoon before Jones-Bishop completed the scoring with a consolation score for Wakefield, the former Leeds man racing in from 70 metres after Joe Mellor fired a long ball into his arms.