AUSTRALIAN winger Nathan Blacklock scored a stunning first-half hat-trick as Hull beat Warrington 40-6 in their Super League elimination play-off overnight.
Blacklock's heroics kept Hull on course for a double to add to their Challenge Cup title and it also spelt misery for his international teammate Andrew Johns who heads home after a disappointing night.
John Kear's Hull will now take on Bradford in next Saturday's elimination semi-final, while Johns is expected to play for Australia in the opening Tri-Nations clash with New Zealand in Sydney on October 15.
Hull's success came just eight days after they went down 30-16 to the Wolves in the last game of the regular season, and the turnaround in fortunes was down to a magnificent defence which repelled wave after wave of a Johns-inspired attack.
Johns scored Warrington's only try - his first of a short-term spell restricted to just three appearances - but it was too little, too late.
They had two early tries disallowed, while Blacklock grabbed a first-half hat-trick to virtually put the game beyond the home side.
Blacklock's first try came firmly against the run of play, with centre Richard Whiting setting up the position with a break out of defence and providing the final pass after neat work from Paul Cooke and Stephen Kearney.
Scrum-half Danny Brough missed the conversion but made amends with a penalty after Warrington prop Mark Hilton was punished for obstructing full-back Tom Saxton. Blacklock's other tries were both gifts as the Wolves continued to force the passes and fumble the ball at crucial times.
The former St George flier pounced when his opposite number Chris Bridge dropped Richard Horne's high kick and then raced 50 metres unopposed after Johns' pass to Paul Noone went to ground.
Brough took his goal tally to three from four and it could have been worse for the Wolves, with centre Kirk Yeaman, back from two-match suspension, having a try disallowed for a forward pass.
But Warrington had their moments too, with Bridge and fellow winger Henry Fa'afili both having tries ruled out by the video referee for touching the whitewash.
It was a similar story in the second half, with Warrington pounding their opponents' line. At one stage Hull were forced to defend three successive sets of six tackles but the thin blue line held.
It was only when Hull were down to 12 men, following the 55th-minute sin-binning of stand-off Horne for a professional foul, that Warrington managed to finally breach their otherwise watertight defence.
Inevitably it was Johns who did the damage, tearing himself out of tackles to force his way over after 62 minutes and his conversion brought Warrington back to 18-6.
But Hull put the issue beyond doubt with four further tries in the last 12 minutes as Warrington crumbled.
Yeaman was put through a gap by Cooke's pinpoint pass and sent substitute Chris Chester over. He then dummied his way over himself while Whiting and winger Gareth Raynor also grabbed tries and Brough took his goal tally to six from eight attempts to give the visitors a flattering margin of victory.
Agence France-Presse
