Championship round-up: Wakefield Trinity and Batley Bulldogs produce comeback victories as Featherstone Rovers fall to third successive defeat

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 signals a third successive defeat for Fev who fought back from 6-0 and 12-6 to lead 16-12 with just 15 minutes remaining, only to succumb to a late Kris Welham try.

Welham gave the Eagles a 13th minute lead, grounding the ball after a grubber kick in behind the visitors’ defence. But Rovers levelled the score at 6-6 thanks to Connor Jones’ 15th try of the season after good work from Caleb Aekins.

Sheffield, however, led at the break when James Glover crossed from out wide. But their lead was wiped out thanks to two tries in 13 second half minutes from Gareth Gale and Paul Turner.

Turner was influential in Gale’s 52nd minute effort after producing some neat footwork before finding the star winger. And Turner gave Fev the lead for the first time in the match, crossing easily after a Sheffield error to make it 16-12.

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.

Burton got his second after Batley defended their own line stoutly before Dane Manning gave the Bulldogs the lead for the first time with ten minutes left after cutting through the Swinton defence.

There was late pressure for Mark Moxon’s men to defend but they held on for the win.

Elsewhere, York Knights htrashed Dewsbuy Rams 40-0 at FLAIR Stadium while Bradford Bulls beat Whitehaven 36-18 in Cumbria.

Yesterday, Halifax Panthers produced a great comeback to beat Barrow Raiders 38-28 while Toulouse beat Doncaster 52-0.