WAKEFIELD TRINITY 58 CATALANS DRAGONS 10
JOHN DAVIDSON, DIY Kitchens Stadium, FRIDAY

CAIUS FAATILI grabbed a hat-trick as Wakefield Trinity bashed Catalans Dragons thanks to a second-half blitz.

Tied up at 10-10 at half-time, Wakefield turned on the afterburners in the second-half and scored nine tries to romp to a dominant 48-point victory.

Catalans suffered a blow just three minutes in when Lewis Dodd went off for a head injury assess-ment.

Buit it didn’t seem to impact them as it was the Dragons who drew first blood, eight minutes into the match.

Tommy Makinson made a break down the left edge and found Charlie Staines in support for the score.

Toby Sexton made no mistake to give the visitors an early 6-0 lead.

Soon, they were in again, this time thanks to the brilliance of Solomona Faataape.

The big centre bulldozed his way through a tackle, drew Josh Rourke and then popped a pass for Sexton to touch down easily.

Sexton’s conversion attempt hit the post but at 10-0 after just 11 minutes, Catalans seemed to be cruising.

Wakefield started to move the ball at speed to find an opening, but the visitors’ defence was up to scratch.

Trinity made some metres downfield, but their hands let them down.

Wakefield earned a penalty and their hard graft paid off with Caleb Hamlin-Uele powering off over a crash ball.

Mason Lino added the extras to make it 10-6.

Trinity were building pressure on Catalans, who hooked their short drop-out straight into touch.

Then the Dragons worked their way up the other end of the field and earned a penalty, which Sexton missed badly.

Right before time Wakefield threw shape to their left edge and Will Tate crashed over in the corner.

Lino couldn’t add the extras, leaving it delicately poised at 10-10 at the break.

The second-half started with a successful Captain’s Challenge for the home side, with Catalans penalized for a ball steal.

Then came a bit of brilliance from Jake Trueman.
The halfback looked to have nowhere to go, but dinked a ball over the top with Faatili winning the race to score.

Lino extended Trinity’s lead to 16-10, the first time in the game that Trinity had been ahead.

Three minutes later the home side were in again and would not look back.

After a series of ofloads and line breaks, the ball came to Jay Pitts and the forward cut inside to touch down.
Trinity were on fire and Jayden Myers was the next to score, courtesy of a beautifully floated pass from Trueman.

Lino’s kick from the sideline was wide.

But Catalans were in deep trouble and Faatili used his power to force his way over.

Lino made no mistake this time to put Trinity out of sight.

Faatili was having a field day and the burly prop was on hand to ground another Trueman kick, bringing up his hat-trick.

Lino added the two points but wonderful Wakefield were not done yet, as they put their foot down.

There was still time for Jazz Tevaga, Oliver Pratt, Trueman and Tate to grab late tries of their own.

GAMESTAR: It only took super-sub Caius Faatili 17 minutes to score his second half hat-trick.

GAMEBREAKER: Jay Pitts’ second half try knocked the stuffing out of Catalans.

HIGHLIGHT REEL: Jake Trueman’s cut-off pass was perfectly executed.

ALBERT GOLDTHORPE POINTS
3 pts Caius Faatili (Wakefield)
2 pts Jake Trueman (Wakefield)
1 pt Jay Pitts (Wakefield)

MATCHFACTS

TRINITY
23 Josh Rourke
21 Jayden Meyers
2 Oliver Pratt
4 Corey Hall
32 Will Tate
6 Jake Trueman
7 Mason Lino
8 Mike McMeeken
9 Tyson Smoothy
10 Ky Rodwell
11 Seth Nikotemo
3 Cam Scott
14 Jay Pitts
Subs (all used)
12 Matty Storton
13 Jazz Tevaga
15 Caleb Hamlin-Uele
16 Caius Faatili
24 Tray Loloesio
18th man (not used)
Matty Storton
Also in 21-man squad
18 Isaiah Vagana
20 Jack Sinfield
32 Will Tate

Tries: Hamlin-Uele (25), Tate (38, 78), Faatili (43, 55, 60), Pitts (46), Myers (52), Tevaga (63), Pratt (70), Trueman (76)
Goals: Lino 6/11
DRAGONS
1 Charlie Staines
3 Nick Cotric
24 Gillermo Aispuro-Bicjet
4 Solomona Faataape
2 Tommy Makinson
6 Toby Sexton
7 Lewis Dodd
16 Josh Allen
26 Ugo Tison
17 Romain Navarrete
12 Ben Condon
20 Zac Lipowicz
13 Ben Garcia
Subs (all used)
11 Franck Maria
18 Harvey Wilson
19 Kruise Leeming
30 Alexis Lis
18th man
28 Léo Darrélatour
Also in 21-man squad
8 Chris Satae
10 Julian Bousquet
27 Clement Martin

Tries: Staines (8), Sexton (11)
Goals: Sexton 1/3

SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-4, 0-6, 0-10, 4-10, 6-10, 10-10, 14-10, 16-10, 20-10, 22-10, 26-10, 30-10, 32-10, 36-10, 38-10, 42-10, 44-10, 48-10, 52-10, 54-10, 58-10

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Man of the Match
Trinity: Caius Faatili; Dragons: Tommy Makinson

Penalty count: 7-4
Half-time: 10-10
Referee: Aaron Moore
Attendance: 8,532