Super League: Hull KR 24-10 Widnes
Last Updated: 17/05/16 12:07pm
Hull KR honoured the late Roger Millward with a 24-10 win over Widnes at the KC Lightstream Stadium.
This was Rovers' first Super League game since Millward, the club's greatest player, passed away at the start of the month.
It was a match James Webster's players wanted to win as a way to pay their respects, and they did so with a commanding performance from start to finish.
Rovers started with purpose and Widnes knew they would have to weather a passionate start from the home side, but they could do nothing to stop them from taking the lead.
Attacking down the left side towards the floral tributes to Millward, Shaun Lunt found a gap to go over from dummy-half. Ben Cockayne made the difficult conversion from the touchline to make it 6-0 to Rovers.
After kicking out on the full from the restart, Widnes continued to be their own worst enemies, making unforced errors at crucial times.
Twice within 10 metres of Rovers' try line, referee Robert Hicks pulled them up for forward passes.
Remarkably, Lunt's try and Cockayne's conversion were the only scores of the first half.
Just as they did in the first half, Rovers scored after three minutes of play in the second period. Albert Kelly secured possession under a high kick to send Ken Sio over on the final play. Cockayne again added the extras to give Rovers a 12-0 lead.
Widnes finally got on the scoresheet with 22 minutes remaining. Gil Dudson crashed on to a short pass to score from close range. Rhys Hanbury made no mistake with the conversion near the posts to reduce Rovers' lead to 12-6.
Rovers extended their advantage in the 62nd minute when James Greenwood was rewarded for supporting Lunt's break down the middle to take the hooker's scoring pass over near the posts. Cockayne's conversion made it 18-6.
Widnes responded with a fortuitous try four minutes later. Joe Wardill should have dealt with a grubber kick, but it went through his hands for Corey Thompson to score. Hanbury missed the conversion by the smallest of margins to leave the Vikings needing two tries to win, trailing 18-10.
Kelly rounded off the scoring late in the game with Cockayne converting to keep alive Rovers' hopes of making the top eight.
Widnes' poor run of form in the continued absence of Kevin Brown continues ahead of the Magic Weekend.