Widnes defence pleases Betts

Widnes coach Denis Betts felt that his team were pushed hard in their 14-0 win over Halifax in their opening game of the Qualifiers at the weekend.

Halifax defended well, and Widnes only sealed the game with two tries in the last two minutes, after leading 4-0 for much of the game.

The fact that Fax did not score at all was one positive that he took from the performance.

“You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t in those kind of games,” he said.

“Everybody thought we would go there and win comfortably. Everybody except us, really, we knew that it was going to be a very tough game.

“We knew that if we could break them early then we might have been able to rack up a few more points, and maybe make it a little bit more comfortable than it was in the end.

“But they fought hard, they scrambled really well. We were just a little bit off.

“To get a zero on the board is tough in any league against any opposition in rugby league, so that was the pleasing side of it.

“Credit to Halifax and the way they worked. It became a bit of a slog.”

Widnes have added some important recruits for next season, with the likes of Chris Bridge and Setaimata Sa inked in for 2016.

Betts thinks that the new players will help propel the Vikings to a higher league position next season.

“We’re making statements that we want to more competitive in Super League next year by adding some quality,” he added.

“We feel we’ve underachieved a little bit this year. We felt we could have finished higher.”