There were plenty of points scored in round thirteen of the Betfred Championship with three out of the six encounters delivering more than sixty points.
Saturday saw the top two sides in action as second placed Toulouse hosted third place Featherstone Rovers and the Toronto Wolfpack had their first game of the season on home soil with Swinton Lions the visitors.
On Sunday there was another top of the table clash as London Broncos hosted the Leigh Centurions while Barrow were at home to the Batley Bulldogs, Rochdale Hornets were at Dewsbury Rams, and Sheffield Eagles hosted Halifax.
Toulouse won the four-pointer with Featherstone to go back ahead of them in the table with a 36-10 home win despite going 10-0 behind to tries from Briscoe and Newman, the second converted by Ridyard. Kheirallah scored a try and kicked two goals while Marion also grabbed a try for a 12-10 lead to the home side at the interval. Second half tries from Hepi, Barthau, Canet and Ader, all converted by the able boot of Kheirallah, sealed an impressive win.
Toronto didn’t mess around, despite going 2-0 behind to a Hankinson penalty after two minutes. They scored early tries from Kay and Stanley to open up an eight point lead before Austin scored and converted try to narrow the margin to just two. O’Brien and Krasniqi grabbed tries before the interval for a 22-8 half-time lead. Kay, O’Brien, Rawsthorne, Sidlow and Wallace all scored in the twenty after the break before Swinton’s only second half try from Butt on sixty-six. Kay completed his hat-trick on sixty-nine before Dixon and Higson also got four pointers in the dying minutes to seal a comprehensive 62-14 win.
London Broncos and Leigh Centurions had quite a battle at the Trailfinders on Sunday afternoon with Leigh running out eventual winners by 40-30. Williams put London ahead early but Evans and Hansen made it 12-6 to Leigh before Walker scored to level the scores at 12-12. Two minutes before the interval Hall gave his side a six point lead which Gee cancelled out soon after the restart. At 18-18 the game was still anyones. Hall and Higham scored within three minutes of one another to give the Centurions some breathing space but Meadows and Adebiyi struck back to get London within two points of the visitors at 30-32 with nine minutes remaining. Leigh held their nerve and thanks to tries from Hood and Mata’utia they took the two points while lifted them to level on league points with London and put a top four place within their grasp.
It was one way traffic for Halifax as the strolled to a 42-6 win over lowly Sheffield Eagles to keep their top four aspirations alive. Kaye, Butler (2) and Laulu-Togagae (2) all scored four-pointers in the first half for a 30-0 half time lead. Sheffield got their only points of the game on the hour mark through Costello but Barber and Johnson finished a great afternoon for ‘Fax.
It was a close game in Cumbria which eventually saw Barrow triumph and take the points. A Dallimore penalty opened the scoring for Barrow but Scott scored the first try of the game to edge his side 6-2 ahead. Bullock scored just before the break for Barrow to send them into the sheds with an 8-6 lead. Brambani put the Bulldogs ahead by 12-8 five minutes into the second half before a Parata try on fifty was converted by Dallimore for 14-12 for the home side. The lead then switched again on fifty-seven when Leak scored and Walker added his third conversion of the game for 18-14 but a try in the dying second for Johnston, kicked on the final hooter by Dallimore sealed the20-18 home win.
The final game on Sunday was another nip and tuck affair at the Tetley’s Stadium where Rochdale beat Dewsbury by 32-27 after a titanic struggle. Whittaker put Rochdale 6-0 ahead early before Scott and Brown put the home side ahead by 10-8. Talatoka scored just before the break to send the Hornets into the sheds with a 14-10 lead. Speakman and Guzdek both got tries in the opening ten minutes of the second half for the Rams for a 22-14 home lead before Tatatoka and Hadden put the Hornets in the driving seat at 26-22. Moore scored a try on seventy-four and kicked a drop goal two minutes later for a 27-26 home lead before Kay sealed the away win with a try two minutes from time, converted by Whittaker for the victory.