They were well beaten by a Firwood Waterloo side, who were able to take full advantage of the wide-open spaces of the Memorial Gardens pitch to run in a total of six tries on their way to victory.

The host side will have been delighted with their afternoons work, and they can now look forward to a trip to Manchester in the semi-finals.

Widnes, meanwhile, will have to jump up from the canvas, dust themselves down and roll up their sleeves ahead of a return to the action against West Park in the annual charity game on 19th September.

By that time, the hope is to have some of their missing players back ahead of the league season which begins a week later.

In sunny, dry conditions, ‘Loo began brightly and quickly had a try on the scoreboard inside the opening two minutes after splitting the Wids defence wide open.

Shortly after, the hosts then added a penalty from man-of-the-match James Ratcliffe to increase their advantage.

With penalties continuing to hurt the visitors and under severe pressure, the referee then awarded ‘Loo a penalty try which made the score 15 – nil.

Six minutes later, back-to-back penalties got Widnes close, from where alert scrum half Gavin Hatton dummied his way over the line for a try which was goaled by Liam McGovern.

Hoping that this was the start of the fightback, ‘Loo quickly put an end to that particular notion as Ratcliffe and Wolfenden combined from distance, enabling the latter to score a converted try and make the score 22 – 7 at half time.

Widnes drafted in Alex Glover at the break for his debut appearance in senior colours. But it was the host side that were again quickly into gear, as wing man Jude Cameron added a further try which was goaled from way out on the touchline.

Widnes were able to mount something of a response shortly afterwards as Charlie Feeley collected a loose ball to stroll in behind the posts for a try converted by Liam McGovern.

Over the next ten minutes or so, Widnes then introduced Craig Lawton, Pav Makles, Ben Mercer and Alfi Rourke, before a fine tackle denied Gavin Hatton as the scrum half headed for the line.

‘Loo wing man Cameron then scored again as he got onto the end of Ratcliffe’s long, bullet like pass to cross in the corner for their final score.

There was still time for Widnes to give it one last shot, and following a couple of midfield breaks from Ben Mercer and Craig Lawton, it was left to hooker Adam Menia to use his size and strength to crash over for a converted try before proceedings concluded for the afternoon.

Wids Head coach Liam McGovern said afterwards “Today was always going to be a tough task with the number of changes and disruptions we have had with unavailability, injuries and suspensions.

Obviously having three forwards in the backline and coming up against a quick, slick set of backs at Waterloo isn’t a great recipe for a win.
But we got what we deserved; we will watch the video review the footage and learn from our mistakes.”

WIDNES: J Salter, J Argent, L Lawton, E Price, W Patient, L McGovern, G Hatton, M Blakey, A Menia, D Rourke, M Garrity, S Bryan, K Arndell, C Feeley, T O’Neill (c). Reps: P Makles, C Lawton, A Glover, B Mercer, A Rourke.