Warrington beat Hull FC to boost play-off hopes

Warrington's Josh Thewlis raced clear from his own 22 to open the scoring

Betfred Super League

Warrington Wolves (12) 24

Tries: Josh Thewlis, Jake Thewlis, Powell, Fitzgibbon Goals: Sneyd 4

Hull FC (10) 10

Tries: Barron, Sezer Goals: Sezer

Warrington Wolves boosted their chances of making this season's Super League play-off places with a 24-10 victory over Hull FC.

Tries from Josh Thewlis, Jake Thewlis, Sam Powell and Lachlan Fitzgibbon helped them close the gap to within three points of the sixth-placed Black and Whites.

Marc Sneyd added four goals for Wolves in a much-improved performance following their defeat by second-bottom Huddersfield Giants last time out.

First-half tries from Harvey Barron and captain Aidan Sezer proved to be in vain for Hull who were unable to score after the interval.

Warrington hit the front after five minutes when Josh Thewlis evaded the grasp of two Hull players to race clear from inside his own 22 and score a wonderful individual effort.

They got their second when Matt Dufty's catch and pass found the younger of the Thewlis brothers, Jake, who strolled in to score.

The visitors had a try ruled out in the 22nd minute when Warrington centre Roderick Tai was adjudged to have grounded the ball in-goal before Jordan Rapana dotted down.

Hull clicked into gear on the half-hour mark when Sezer's terrific line break allowed him to unselfishly pick out Barron to put the visitors on the board.

Eight minutes later, Sezer muscled his way past some weak Warrington defending to drag his side within two points at half-time.

But Warrington responded quickly after the break as Powell found a gap in the Hull defence to dart over for his first Super League try this year, and Sneyd's simple conversion made it a two-score game.

As Hull began to tire, Dufty dummied to break past some lacklustre defending, and his pass inside set up Australian second-row Fitzgibbon to score a fourth try for the home side.

Hull winger Lewis Martin thought he had reduced the deficit late on when he dived in at the corner but, under pressure from some determined defending from Tai, his left foot was adjudged by the video referee to have been out of bounds.

Warrington coach Sam Burgess told BBC Radio Merseyside:

"I was happy with the performance today. I thought we controlled large parts of the game, so I'm just happy for the players that we're back in the winner's circle and we can get some momentum.

"It's been a while since we've led from the start so the players will take a bit out of it – it was pleasing.

On Josh Thewlis' try:

"It was a great effort. He's a very elusive player and he's really developed over the last 12 months, but certainly in the last month he's doing a little bit more to understand the game on a deeper level and with it he's getting more opportunities."

Hull FC coach John Cartwright told BBC Radio Humberside:

"Just too many errors, too many simple errors. They started very fast and very strong which we thought they would.

"Really happy at half-time to be only two points down on the back of a lot of errors, but the second-half we got worse.

"You just can't win, no matter who you play, when you give the opposition free shots at you. It sounds pretty simple but you've just got to hang on to the ball in this game."

Warrington Wolves: Dufty; Josh Thewlis, Wrench, Tai, Jake Thewlis; Williams, Sneyd; Yates, Crowther, Vaughan, Stone, Fitzgibbon, Currie.

Interchanges: Powell, Thomas, Harrison, Ratchford.

Hull FC: Rapana; Barron, Briscoe, Litten, Martin; Cust, Sezer; Ese'ese, Bourouh, Knight, Hardaker, Aydin, Chamberlain.

Interchanges: Ashworth, Charles, Eseh, Fash.

Referee: Chris Kendall.