North Wales Crusaders confirmed their spot in the Super Eights end of season play-offs with five games to go as a much changed side ran riot against Newcastle Thunder in the North East.
Head coach Carl Forster, who was boosted by the return of both Jake Spedding and Jordan Case from long-term injuries, made several changes to his Crusaders side as they looked to take a step closer to the League One title with victory on Tyneside.
His league leaders looked to get off to a flying start with an opportunity to score falling their way inside the first minute only for play to be pulled back for a knock-on.
However, the visiting supporters didn’t have to wait long to see the scoring opened as Joe Baldwin collected a dropped ball from Newcastle before making no mistake to score.
Having seen one effort ruled out for a forward pass before his side were held up over the line twice, Jack Holmes eventually doubled Crusaders’ lead with 15 minutes gone as he finished a sweeping move in the corner.
The visitors continued to make use of good field position as Ant Walker and Matty Unsworth crossed the whitewash before Holmes grabbed his second of the afternoon having opened the Thunder defence on the wing.
Newcastle’s efforts during periods of the first-half were rewarded on the stroke of half-time as North Wales failed to deal with a high kick on the last tackle and George Birch scored, sending the teams into the break at 6-26.
As the second-half got underway, Crusaders looked a determined outfit with captain Chris Barratt crashing over the whitewash with less than a minute gone.
Minutes later he was followed by Jake Spedding who marked his return from injury with a score under the posts before Josh Eaves also snook over the line just moments after as the visitor’s raced into a 44-6 lead.
The afternoon got worse for the home side with 60 minutes gone as Newcastle’s George Birch was shown a yellow, leaving his side down to 12 men.
Making use of their extra man, Crusaders further punished Thunder as Sam Wilde crashed over the line.
Just moments later Jordy Gibson, who had also taken up kicking duties in the absence of Jamie Dallimore, finished a lovely attacking move before converting his own try, bringing Crusaders’ lead to 54-6.
North Wales continued to turn the screw in the final ten minutes.
Back-to-back penalties conceded by Newcastle set a good position for Wilde to attack and score from before a grubber kick from Gibson was touched down by Baldwin, also grabbing his brace for the afternoon.
With minutes of the game remaining, Wilde sealed the victory whilst securing his hat-trick, dummying the Newcastle defence in the process, capping off a dominant afternoon for Forster’s North Wales side.