It was a tale of two halves as Hull FC Academy suffered a 38-16 defeat in their first match of the season away to Warrington Wolves Under 18s this evening.
Discipline dictated the state of play at Victoria Park, with Warrington racing into a 32-0 lead at half-time, assisted by a litany of penalties.
The shoe found itself on the other foot in the second-half, though, with Hull enjoying plenty of the momentum as Roman Dawson’s brace and tries from Ben Johnson and Callum Barfield closed the gap.
The Match
Hull started really brightly in the opening quarter, with Joe Thompson and Callum Kemp each forcing goal-line drop-outs. But all of the early momentum came to nothing, and Warrington made the visitors pay when they got their own territory. Aaron Lindop, who made a try-scoring Super League debut in Round One against Catalans just a few weeks ago, was on the scoreboard for the Wolves again, barging over from dummy-half.
The hosts added to their lead six minutes later when Cai Taylor-Wray’s cut-out pass out wide allowed Francis Sergent to score in the right corner.
Discipline began to dictate the momentum of the game, and when the Black & Whites were penalised three times in a row, towering prop forward Thomas McKinney was in no mood to show Hull FC’s youngsters any mercy as he crashed over on the powerplay.
In similar fashion, Harrison Rigby took a one-up carry in towards the sticks on play-one of a set after a penalty and Hull couldn’t prevent him from scoring.
And before the half was up, it seemed as though the game certainly was. Wingers Sergent and Lachlan Webster scored in either corner, giving the Wolves a 32-0 lead at the interval.
HALF-TIME: Wolves Academy 32-0 Hull Academy
But Hull’s youngsters weren’t feeling sorry for themselves and their keep calm, carry on attitude carried them towards their first points of the evening. Centre Johnson channeled his inner back-rower and ran a powerful line off Callum Kemp to bulldoze his way over the whitewash.
The spirit of the visitors continued to lift as Warrington’s discipline faltered, and three minutes after Johnson’s score, Hull had another. Joe Thompson’s perfectly-weighted grubber kick into the in-goal area was grounded by Dawson, who found himself on the scoresheet for a second consecutive week.
There was no let-up from the Black & Whites, with some powerful backline carries earning penalties inside their own half. With the resulting field position, FC were foraging, and Lloyd Kemp’s long-range pass to Barfield was finished off in the left corner by the wing man.
Ryan Westerman failed to convert any of the three attempts from out wide, which left the visitors still a fair 20 points behind their Lancashire counterparts.
But that didn’t knock the go-forward of the Black & Whites, who made it sixteen unanswered points when Johnson batted a high Callum Kemp kick back to Dawson, allowing the winger to dart through a small gap to score.
This time, Kemp’s missed conversion attempt drifted just wide, and at this point Hull were left wondering what might’ve been had their conversions hit the target, with the prospect of cutting a 32-point deficit down to eight sat in the back of their minds.
Instead of being eight behind, the visitors were instead sixteen behind with ten minutes to go and it appeared to be a mountain to tall.
Rally they did, though, and had Callum Kemp have taken in Joe Thompson’s pass with an overlap on his right shoulder, Hull may have finished off yet another slick move in attack.
However, it was the Wolves with the final say as Lewis Barratt burrowed over from dummy-half with the final play on the game.
FULL-TIME: Wolves Academy 38-16 Hull Academy
Squads & Scorers
Hull: L Kemp, Barfield, Westerman, Johnson, Dawson, C Kemp, Thompson, Turner, Swyer, Smith, Kirby, Clark, Baker
Hull Interchanges: Lowthorpe, Opie, Rea, Tempest
Hull Tries: Johnson, Dawson (2), Barfield
Hull Goals: Westerman (0/3), C Kemp (0/1)
Wolves: Taylor-Wray, Sergent, Walker, Lindop, Webster, Hickey, Westwood, McKler, Barratt, McKinney, Nottingham, Stanton, Mather
Wolves Interchanges: Evans, Johnson, Regan, Rigby
Wolves Tries: Lindop, Sergent (2), McKinney, Rigby, Webster, Barratt
Wolves Goals: Hickey (4/6), Regan (1/1)
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