Wakefield Trinity 10 Wigan Warriors 48: Hosts given sobering lesson by red-hot Challenge Cup winners

A week after downing the Super League champions, Trinity were given a sobering lesson by Wigan Warriors in front of their own fans.

The challenge facing Wakefield has never been producing one-off results; it is reproducing them consistently against the cream of Super League.

On this evidence, they must still find another level if they are to trouble the big hitters when it matters most.

Context is important, however. Enforced changes robbed Trinity of some of the fluency and cohesion that had been evident a week earlier.

Unfortunately for Wakefield, a rejigged side could hardly have faced a sterner test than a Wigan team operating near the peak of their powers.

The Warriors were written off in some quarters after four straight Super League defeats earlier in the campaign but they are the team to beat again on this form.

Young winger Noah Hodkinson led the way with four tries as the Challenge Cup winners racked up 40 points for a third straight game, a run that began at Wembley.

Wakefield can at least take solace from the fact that few teams would have coped with Wigan at their clinical best.

What matters now is how Trinity respond. This is a performance they must quickly consign to history if they are to maintain their upward trajectory.

For all the positivity generated by the win over Rovers, it came at a high cost.

Powell was forced to make four changes to his backline in the absence of Josh Rourke, Oli Pratt, Corey Hall and Mason Lino – and it showed against the red-hot Warriors.

Wakefield stayed in the fight for much of the first half, only to concede three tries in eight minutes in the closing stages.

Liam Farrell opened the scoring at the end of a slick last-tackle powerplay down the right but most of the damage was done by Wigan's left edge, just as Daryl Powell feared.

The Trinity boss went as far as saying they were "on fire" pre-match and his side certainly felt the heat.

Hodkinson had already lost the ball short of the line when he scored his first try just before the half-hour mark on the back of a rampaging run by Junior Nsemba.

That opened the floodgates. Oliver Partington went himself from dummy-half after Harry Smith's kick had left Trinity in scramble mode and it got worse for the hosts following a move to the right and back again that was finished by Hodkinson.

Matty Storton's strong response to Farrell's opener was a distant memory by half-time.

Powell reacted to the flurry of tries by replacing Jayden Myers with Will Tate but Wakefield could not stem the tide.

Hodkinson outjumped Tate to collect Jack Farrimond's cross-field kick and complete his hat-trick, ending any faint hopes of a Trinity fightback.

It only got worse for Powell's men following Bevan French's introduction.

Jake Wardle dummied his way over at the end of another slick move to the left, sparking cries of "Wakefield till I die" from the Belle Vue faithful.

But after seeing Hodkinson score his fourth try from Smith's cut-out pass and Zach Eckersley get in on the act courtesy of a French assist, supporters began streaming towards the exits.

Tom Johnstone marked his 150th appearance with a try from Jake Trueman's looping ball but the night ended how it started with Farrell going over – a final act that had French's fingerprints all over it.

Ominously for their rivals, French and Wigan are well and truly back.

Wakefield Trinity: Jowitt, Johnstone, Nikotemo, Scott, Myers, Trueman, Sinfield, McMeeken, Smoothy, Rodwell, Storton, Vagana, Pitts. Substitutes: Hamlin-Uele, Faatili, Lolesio, Tate.

Tries: Storton (11), Johnstone (65).

Goals: Jowitt 1/3.

Wigan Warriors: Field, Eckersley, Keighran, Wardle, Hodkinson, Farrimond, Smith, Havard, O'Neill, Thompson, Nsemba, Farrell, Partington. Substitutes: French, Ellis, Mago, Eseh Jr.

Tries: Farrell (5, 77), Hodkinson (28, 35, 48, 57), Partington (31), Wardle (53), Eckersley (60).

Goals: Keighran 6/9.

Referee: Marcus Griffiths.