Widnes endured another horror afternoon in Super League on Easter Monday, falling 42-22 to Leeds at Headingley.
It was the Vikings’ eighth loss of the season and sees them remain at the bottom of the ladder. Against the Rhinos Widnes were blown off the park in the first half, unable to handle the home team’s speed and offloads. With the score 30-4 at half-time the game was effectively over, but to their credit Widnes did come back into it and score three tries in the second half to make it a contest
But it was too little too late. To make matters worse, the visitors picked another handful of serious injuries with Danny Craven, Lloyd White and Tom Armstrong all forced from the field. Those three, not to mention several others, will miss Friday’s game against St Helens.
Widnes have had no luck in the injury department in 2017, with up to a third of their squad sitting in the stands at different stages so far this year. Every club has to deal with injuries at different stages and some deal with it better than others. But with no reserve team and arguably a thinner squad than nearly every other Super League side, it has hit the Chemics very hard.
The writing was also on the wall when Kevin Brown signed for Warrington in December. Brown had spent four years at the Select Security Stadium, scoring 51 tries in 81 games. Captain and match-winner, the England international had been Widnes’ focal point and main leader for a long stretch.
But with his departure, the keys to the team were thrown to Brown’s former halves partner Joe Mellor and 23-year old Tom Gilmore. What happened next? Mellor gets injured in a meaningless friendly after Boxing Day and misses several months. And then Gilmore was out for 10 weeks with ankle injury he picks up in the season opener against Huddersfield. Talk about cursed.
With Brown not properly replaced a costly error and the Vikings main signings for 2017 two players who arrived from the Championship, the roster has been heavily stretched. Widnes have been forced to hand a number of young players their Super League debuts already, including 19-year old Liam Walsh, 17-year old Danny Walker and 18-year old Owen Farnworth. The likes of 19-year old Jordan Johnstone and 21-year old twins James and Ted Chapelhow have had to play big minutes, and held their own commendably, because of their injury crisis.
Compounding this has been the poor form of several veterans, such as Rhys Hanbury and Chris Houston. Hanbury has three tries and two try assists in eight games, along with 14 errors. Only six players in Super League have made more errors this year, and one is Widnes centre Charly Runciman with 15. Houston, appointed co-captain after Brown left, leads Super League along with Huddersfield hooker Kruise Leeming in the most penalties given away by any player
Unsurprisingly Widnes fans have been unhappy with the team’s struggles this year. Some have called for coach Denis Betts to go. They have pointed to clubs such as Castleford and Wakefield, also on small budgets, who have been more successful without huge investment.
But if you sold Luke Gale in pre-season and then lost Ben Roberts and Rangi Chase to injury for most of the first 10 games, how would Castleford be doing? If at the same time Paul McShane and Adam Milner were injured for long periods, along with Grant Millington, Greg Eden, Junior Moors and Andy Lynch, while Zak Hardaker and Mike McMeeken struggled for form all at once, would they be leading the competition? I severely doubt it.
The same can be said for Trinity without Jacob Miller, Sam Williams, Liam Finn, Kyle Wood, Matt Ashurst, Danny Kirmond, Craig Huby, Tinirau Arona and Ben Jones-Bishop. Take out the first-choice spine of any team in Super League, along with most of their forward pack and a few others, and they would be in trouble.
Betts is a good coach but he is not a miracle-worker. You can only work with the cattle you’ve got. In his near seven years with Widnes he has led them back into Super League and every year since 2012 when the club the finished 14th, apart from a ninth place in 2015, the Vikings have always finished in a higher place on the table each season. Tenth in 2013, eighth in 2014, ninth in 2015 and seventh in 2016. It hasn’t been spectacular but it has been consistent.
“We can look at our injury crisis and the kids getting a chance, but we’ve got to win,” Betts said after the Leeds game.
“We’ve got to start winning some games. We can pick up a bit of a run - you’ve got to have a little bit of faith. We’ve got to get some bodies back on the field. I need those bodies and that experience to start playing well. And then the performance will take care of itself. I think we’ve got enough quality in this group.”
There’s 13 matches left until the Super 8s start for the Vikings to turn their campaign around. They probably need to win eight of the next 13 to make the top eight. Not easy by any means, but not impossible either. And even if they do finish in the bottom four, there is another seven games after that to prove they truly belong in Super League. As the Rolling Stones sang, time is on their side.
