Rugby League - Gentle using cup as inspiration

Hull secured their first league win in six games on Friday night with a 72-10 dismantling of Widnes at the KC Stadium.

A brace of tries each from Jamie Shaul, Tom Briscoe and Jacob Miller helped Hull to victory days after they booked their place in the Tetley’s Challenge Cup final with a 16-12 win against Warrington on Sunday.

Gentle has now called for the Black and Whites to take their cup form forward into the final league push and hailed their performance.

“It was very important to back up what we did in the Challenge Cup competition,” Gentle said. “You can’t block out the cup final. It’s a great achievement but we needed to bring that form into the league and tonight we did that.

“I thought Jacob Miller’s best performance was last week, and now I believe he has built on that tonight. But as a team we have still got a few things to work on, which I know sounds silly.

“We’ve got a big game against Hull KR next week, and then after that it’s a big game against Salford leading into the Challenge Cup final.”

Before the game, Widnes had a slim chance of making a late surge for the end of season play-offs, but now those chances are all but over as they sit 11th on the ladder six points behind Hull with four games remaining.

Widnes coach Denis Betts admitted his disappointment at the scoreline.

“I was embarrassed to be associated with that. I just didn’t see it coming. It looked like we gave up at times,” Betts said. “We made it comfortable for them. We have to swallow it and be embarrassed, not gloss over it or look on the positives.

“They’ve spoken some harsh words to each other but that has just blown us completely back. It looked like they gave up at times and it was embarrassing. We started of okay but I was thought there was something a bit lacking.

“You can see that Hull were confident of their cup semi-final win and they took us apart.”

Rugby League - Gentle using cup as inspiration