Hull FC kept their play-off hopes alive as they swept aside Warrington Wolves with ease at the MKM Stadium, winning 34-2.
Here’s our talking points
Down to the wire
The race for the top six will be going down to the final week of the season, with Hull fulfilling their end of the bargain on Saturday night. It wasn’t enough to climb back into the top six though, with Wakefield Trinity pulling off an enormous result against Hull KR at Belle Vue to keep hold of that final play-off spot.
It means that battle goes down to the last weekend of action, with Wakefield going to Salford Red Devils and Hull FC hosting Catalans Dragons. There’s one point in it and the stakes are enormous.
The Sezer show
There was only ever one team in this one and it wasn’t the team in primrose and blue, who were quite simply woeful at the MKM Stadium. We’ll get to Warrington below but this was Hull’s night as they turned on the style with a young side to thump Sam Burgess’ side with relative ease.
After going behind through the boot of Marc Sneyd, Hull found their stride and made the Wire pay for lack of discipline and slack defending as Lewis Martin went over in the corner. The Black and Whites went back to back as Harvey Barron burst away down the flank before putting Denive Balmforth, fresh from his loan at Catalans Dragons, over.
Aidan Sezer, who was simply outstanding throughout, was next to get over, stepping through an enormous hole through the middle of Warrington’s defensive line to score of the simplest tries he’s likely to get in his career. That was before the skipper put the ball on a plate for Barron to get the try he deserved with a perfectly weighted grubber to the corner.
Sezer’s boot created Hull’s fifth as well as he slotted a ball through the line for what could be Jordan Lane’s last in a black and white shirt before joining Castleford. Hardaker kept the scoreboard ticking over with a tenacious try with 15 minutes to go.
Wire
Warrington’s season has been over for a while, but they were absolutely awful in East Yorkshire for large periods, allowing their hosts to dictate the game, rack up the points and play with their food.
They started well but Lachlan Fitzgibbon’s sin binning for a high shot on Sam Eseh, which he could have no arguments about, rattled them. Hull went back to back after that as Warrington found themselves struggling to keep with them and with little to play for, heads dropped.
They looked uninterested, lacklustre, withdrawn and their body language told the story of a team simply going through the motions. Hull really should have scored more points if truth be told before the pocket of Wire fans in the north east corner of the ground booed their side off at the break.
Nothing summed Warrington up more than the pass hit Stefan Ratchford on the back of the head as he tied his laces during an attacking play.
Barnstorming Barron
Lewis Martin has been the winger picking up the plaudits at Hull FC this year and he scored his 30th try of the season in all competitions. But Barron was sublime on his return to the side and he deserves an enormous pat on the back.
The youngster has grown week on week this season and it’s fair to say he’s on his way to becoming one of the most powerful wingers in the competition. He set up Balmforth with a driving run down the wing before touching down himself before the break and he made more metres into the second half after trampling over Sam Powell for another clean break.
The future is bright
Hull were missing 12 first-teamers on Saturday and that left John Cartwright needing to dig deep into his squad to simply name a XIII. However, while the opposition was questionable at times, all of those who came into the side looked the part.
Callum Kemp performed with confidence and swagger in the halves, Logan Moy on his first start since March and really staked a claim and Denive Balmforth was an absolute menace. Matty Laidlaw and Will Gardiner were excellent, too.
