The 1895 Cup winners returned to league action with Daryl Powell expecting his side to be “outstanding.” And while it wasn’t always pretty at the DCBL Stadium, Trin did enough to gain another set of two points to make it 11 wins out of 11 in the Championship.
They fell behind in the 12th minute when Joe Lyons crossed, with Tom Gilmore slotting over the conversion and although they pulled a try back through Derrell Olpherts, they trailed 6-4 at the break.
However, three quickfire tries in a nine-minute burst at the start of the second half handed the initiative to Wakefield, although Widnes made it a nervy ending with two tries themselves.
Renouf Atoni powered over from close range five minutes into the second half before Oliver Pratt, who scored twice at Wembley last Saturday, went over after a flowing move. Lachlan Walmsley, another scorer in the 1895 Cup final rout of Sheffield Eagles, then took advantage of a Luke Gale miskick to make it 20-6.
For those who thought it was job done, they were asked to think again as Sam Wilde got Widnes back into the game and although Rhodri Lloyd crossed in the 79th minute, it was too little, too late, as Wakey held on for a 20-18 win, creating a six-point advantage at the top of the table.
That team who are six points behind Trin are last Saturday’s beaten 1895 Cup finalists, Sheffield, who beat Featherstone Rovers 18-16 in South Yorkshire.
It’s the third straight loss for Fev, who trailed 16–12 with 15 minutes left after rallying from 6-0 and 12–6, only to lose to a late try by Kris Welham.
After a grubber kick got past the visiting team’s defense, Welham grounded the ball to give the Eagles the lead in the thirteenth minute. However, following strong work from Caleb Aekins, Connor Jones’ 15th try of the season tied the game at 6-6 for Rovers.James Glover, however, crossed from out wide to give Sheffield the lead at halftime. However, Gareth Gale and Paul Turner’s two tries in the final 13 minutes of the second half erased their lead.
Turner made a significant contribution to Gale’s 52nd-minute effort after showcasing some deft movement and locating the star.
However, the home side grabbed the points when Welham went between the posts with just three minutes remaining.
Batley Bulldogs had to recover from 10-0 and 16-4 at Swinton Lions to secure a third successive victory, which has propelled them into the top half of the table for the first time this season.
Hatton scored a double as the home side raced into a 10-0 lead but Joe Burton took Josh Woods’ looped pass to finish with aplomb in the corner.
Williams made it 16-4 but Alistair Leak come off the bench to make an instant impact to reduce the deficit to 16-10 at the break.
After Batley fiercely guarded their own line, Burton scored his second, and with ten minutes remaining, Dane Manning handed the Bulldogs their first lead by breaking through the Swinton defense.
Mark Moxon’s team faced late pressure to defend, but they managed to hold on and win.In other games, Bradford Bulls defeated Whitehaven 36-18 in Cumbria, while York Knights defeated Dewsbuy Rams 40-0 at FLAIR Stadium.
Toulouse defeated Doncaster 52-0 yesterday, while the Halifax Panthers mounted a fantastic comeback to defeat the Barrow Raiders 38-28.
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