Wildcats thrash Crusaders

Winger Damien Blanch scored twice as Wakefield Wildcats hammered Crusaders 41-0 in Wrexham to improve their engage Super League play-off chances.

England's World Cup clash with Germany caused the match to be delayed until 6pm although Crusaders coach Brian Noble was in favour of a 12.30pm start.

And, as it turned out, it would have been better for the match to have started earlier as a major delay, caused by an incident on the motorway around the Huddersfield area, meant that the Wakefield team bus was delayed severely en route to the Racecourse.

Announcements were made that the kick-off would be put back to 6.45pm, then 7pm and finally 8pm.

But the visitors showed no ill effects from their troubled journey and almost scored inside the first three minutes.

Disastrous start

They made the most of their next chance though, when scrum-half Ben Jefferies went past the cover on the right to score, while half-back partner Paul Cooke converted from the touchline.

It turned into another of the Crusaders' common disastrous starts when Wildcats centre Darryl Millard evaded the defence to cross near the posts on 11 minutes.

The Crusaders came close to opening their account when centre Jason Chan was tackled just a yard short of the line but it was the intensity of a wide-awake Trinity that was the difference.

They looked threatening each time they were in the home half, with interchange forward Michael Korkidas a particular nuisance.

Cooke increased the lead with a drop-goal before loose forward Jason Demetriou found a gap in the home midfield and just stretched far enough to ground the ball on the tryline.

It was just what Wakefield coach John Kear would have wanted after three defeats in June since thumping Harlequins at Belle Vue on May 23.

And it got better when prop Charlie Leaeno drove through for a well-worked try two minutes into the second half.

Dynamic

The dynamic Jeffries continued to find gaps in the home defence, while the Trinity pack forced the pace up front.

Wakefield never let the Crusaders off the leash and added neat tries from Paul Johnson and wing Blanch, with Cooke keeping his faultless kicking record intact.

Blanch added another try as he went over out wide with three minutes to go but Cooke's conversion was too difficult for him to land this time.

However, that hardly mattered as Wakefield completed a comfortable victory.