Wakefield Trinity clinched their second trophy of the season, adding the Betfred Championship League Leaders Shield to the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup they won at Wembley in June, on a Sunday afternoon when 14 Whitehaven heroes claimed a famous victory.
Trinity displayed the power, precision and pace that have dominated the Championship all season to cruise to a 48-6 win at Halifax, with veteran hooker Liam Hood scoring two of their tries, and Max Jowitt converting all eight.
That gave Daryl Powell’s team a 13-point lead at the top of the table over Toulouse Olympique with only five rounds remaining, and after the match captain Matty Ashurst was presented with the League Leaders Shield by RFL Chief Executive Tony Sutton – with club owner Matt Ellis joining Powell and the players on the pitch to celebrate in front of around 1,000 Trinity fans who had travelled to The Shay.
Toulouse had suffered their second consecutive defeat on Saturday evening at Featherstone, where James Ford’s team continued their impressive recent form with a 22-10 win.
And with Sheffield Eagles going down 35-20 at Widnes, the jostling for position behind Wakefield is now tighter than ever, with three points separating five clubs.
Toulouse are still second, one point ahead of Sheffield and Bradford Bulls, who trailed for much of a hard-fought contest at Doncaster before three tries in 10 minutes secured an 18-4 win.
Widnes are now fifth one point behind the Eagles and the Bulls, with Featherstone completing the top six – and York Knights leading the chasing pack in seventh after a convincing win at home to Batley Bulldogs on the club’s inclusion day.
Barrow Raiders snatched a precious 20-18 win against Swinton Lions through a late Ryan Shaw penalty but result of the day came at Dewsbury, where Whitehaven ended a traumatic week with an 18-10 win despite being able to fill only one of four places on their interchange bench.
