Vikings miss-out to Saints (From Warrington Guardian)

Vikings miss-out to Saints

Widnes Vikings 16 St Helens 22

WIDNES Vikings produced a spirited second-half comeback before going down 22-16 to St Helens at Halton Stadium.

As pre-season friendlies go, this was reasonably hard-hitting stuff and coach Frank Endacott will be pleased his new-look Vikings side stuck to their task.

In truth, St Helens always looked the slightly sharper outfit as you might expect from a team that has been together for several seasons and boasts players of the class of Paul Sculthorpe and Mickey Higham.

Those two were a constant threat while they were on the field and it was Sculthorpe who opened the scoring.

The Great Britain star managed to get on the outside of opposite number Owen Craigie to charge over from 15 metres.

He added the extras himself to make it 6-0.

Widnes engineered plenty of attacking positions in the first-half but their main attacking option, the short-kick close to the line, was usually snuffed out by the visitors' defence.

Unfortunately, the reverse was not the case and St Helens prop Mark Edmondson pounced on a loose ball in the Vikings in-goal for the first of a remarkable hat trick of tries.

A 12-0 half-time deficit looked fairly daunting on a filthy night weather-wise but the Vikings hit back on 48 minutes.

Substitute Sala Fa'alogo showed great determination to force his way over through a couple of would-be tacklers.

Edmondson pulled his second rabbit out of the hat to increase St Helens lead to 16-4 but Widnes were growing in confidence.

A well-judged Craigie kick to the corner allowed winger Stephen Rowlands to touch down and he converted his own try superbly from touch.

Within minutes the Vikings got themselves on level terms when centre Aaron Moule, looking sharp after a good pre-season, forced his way over with Rowlands again goaling magnificently.

The game was in the balance at 16-16 but it was St Helens who came up with the crucial play.

It was that man Edmondson who yet again latched onto a close range kick to register the winning try.

Karl Forber's conversion sealed the game for the visitors.

Vikings fans will have been pleased with the commitment shown by their team. Whether that will be enough to compete with a full-strength St Helens in round one of Super League, only time will tell.

Widnes: Connolly; Manu; Moule; Emelio; Rowlands; Craigie; Hulse; O'Connor; Millard; Mills; Cassidy; Stankevitch; Frame; Subs: Holmes; O'Neill; Whitaker; Bibey; Fa'alogo; Nash; Smith; Whittle.