Hull KR beat Wakefield to extend Super League lead

Tom Davies scored a hat-trick for league leaders Hull KR in their victory against Wakefield

Betfred Super League

Hull KR (12) 34

Tries: Davies 3, Burgess, Lewis, Hiku Goals: Mourgue 5

Wakefield (10) 10

Tries: Johnstone, Hall Goal: Jowitt

Hull KR extended their lead at the top of Super League to six points with a stylish 34-10 victory against Wakefield Trinity at Craven Park.

A hat-trick from Tom Davies and one try each from Joe Burgess, Mikey Lewis and Peta Hiku earned Rovers a 15th league win from 16 matches to continue their astonishing run.

French full-back Arthur Mourgue added five goals for the Robins who stopped their opponents scoring in the second-half.

First-half tries from Wakefield's Tom Johnstone and Corey Hall had briefly given the visitors a narrow lead, but they were outclassed after the break.

The hosts opened the scoring in the 20th minute when returning Rhyse Martin offloaded to Davies who gathered the ball well on the bounce and pirouetted away from Wakefield centre Johnstone to dive over.

Three minutes later, Wakefield were level thanks to a wonderful flowing move which ended with a pass over the top from Jake Trueman who found Johnstone to score his seventh try of the Super League season.

Wakefield then went ahead when, on the last tackle, they patiently created an overload on the right and Max Jowitt found Hall to score a try for a side which at that stage was dripping with confidence following their victory against Wigan last time out.

Hull KR put their foot down at the end of the first half when Burgess catapulted himself towards the line to score a trademark try before Mourgue nailed the extras to give the hosts a 12-10 half-time lead.

Five minutes after the break, Lewis' opportunistic linebreak caught Wakefield out and he managed to extend his arm to score on the line and move past 500 career points.

Moments later, Davies' superb dummy deceived three Wakefield players before diving over to score his second of the match and put the Robins in cruise control.

In the 54th minute, the all-action Lewis was then sent to the sin-bin for preventing a try-scoring opportunity when he hauled down Cameron Scott who had kicked the ball past him.

Despite being down to 12 men, Davies completed his third career hat-trick against Wakefield when he collected Hiku's simple pass to dot down.

After returning to the field, Lewis then darted through and outrageously offloaded to Hiku to score a try underlining his true star quality.

In the closing stages, Burgess raced to the line and thought he grabbed his second which would have even bettered his first-half effort but his left knee was adjudged to have been out of bounds by the TMO.

Hull KR head coach Willie Peters told BBC Radio Humberside:

"Wakefield are a very good team and they're going to beat a lot of teams this year.

"I don't think we were that bad in the first half, I just think they were good. They run shape very well.

"We built the game to do what we did in the second half. We wanted to run through their middle but also guys playing out of position probably hurt them in the back end."

Wakefield coach Daryl Powell told BBC Radio Leeds:

"I thought we had a real dig in the first-half and I don't think there was much between the two teams.

"I think the four week period that we've just had has caught up with us with the amount of players that are not available - seven front line unit players [are out], I challenge you to take that out of any team and see how they go.

"It's disappointing. I think the way we started the second half was way off but also understandable as well."

Hull KR: Morgue; Davies, Hiku, Broadbent, Burgess; Lewis, May; Sue, Litten, Hadley, Whitbread, Martin, Minchella

Interchanges: Luckley, Tanginoa, Brown, Leyland

Sin-bin: Lewis (54 mins)

Wakefield: Jowitt; Walmsley, Hall, Pratt, Johnstone; Trueman, Lino; Pitts, Smith, Faatili, Nikotemo, Scott, Griffin

Interchanges: Hood, Vagana, Rourke, Croft

Referee: Jack Smith.