Wakefield Trinity 36 Salford City Reds 6: Wakefield cruise to victory as Obst takes over reins

Obst admirably filled the boots of missing Danny Brough, who looks to be on his way out of Belle Vue, and even took the spotlight off Cooke, who arrived at the Wildcats on Friday after his move from Hull Kingston Rovers.

The 29-year-old Australian – who scored a try and kicked four goals – was at the heart of everything Wakefield did against Salford, with the game over inside half an hour with 28 unanswered points.

Obst had also stepped up to the plate when Brough was sin-binned in their fightback at Hull KR the previous weekend, prompting praise from his coach John Kear.

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"He carried on where he left off last week," said Kear. "At half-time last week we spoke to him about being the only guy out there organising because Danny was in the sin-bin and Sam has continued that and had a very good game.

"I was really happy with the first half, especially the beginning because we felt that Salford will have taken some confidence from beating Harlequins and we wanted to work very hard to make it tough for them to kick on from that.

"It was an absolutely exceptional first 20 minutes. Salford only had three sets or so but you've got to take advantage of that and all credit to the players because they did that.

"I think it was all 17 that contributed. If somebody had said you're going to win 36-6 I think you'd have been pretty satisfied," he said.

"Thirty points between yourself and any other Super League team is a pretty comprehensive victory."

Trinity took the lead after seven minutes, running the ball on the fifth tackle and poor Salford defending allowed the ball to finally reach Darryl Millard on the left flank.

Obst failed with that conversion, but made no mistake in adding the extras to Tevita Leo-Latu's try four minutes later.

Again it came on the fifth tackle, this time the visitors switching off on their own line, allowing Leo-Latu to drive through a gap from dummy half.

Every time Wakefield went forward they looked like scoring, and Glenn Morrison was the next to cash in, stretching out to ground the ball, Obst converting for a 16-0 scoreline after 15 minutes.

Dale Ferguson continued the Wildcats' point-a-minute opening with a converted try. The people doing the most exercise were the Wakefield Dolls cheerleaders who kept leaping up to pitchside from their dugout every time Wakefield scored.

The onlooking Cooke must have wondered how he could improve Trinity on this display, although it was an entire 10 minutes before the home side next crossed the line.

Good work from Matt Blaymire attracted several tacklers, leaving Aaron Murphy free out wide to dive over for another Obst-converted try.

The 33rd minute introduction of Cooke brought a warm round of applause from the Belle Vue crowd, and he was soon involved with several tackles and a lengthy upfield kick. His partnership with Obst will take time to develop, but already there was some promising moves as the sides left the field at half-time with Wakefield coasting at 28-0.

Obst took little time in adding to the scoreline, going over three minutes into the second half, but he dragged his conversion effort wide.

Cooke was nearly on the score sheet himself two minutes later. He played in Jason Demetriou, but as the return pass came Cooke's way he was unable to hang on to the ball with the goal line at his mercy.

Michael Korkidas was causing problems with his powerful running, but it was now damage limitation for Salford who rarely threatened over halfway. So it was a surprise for the 4,883 crowd when the visitors grabbed an unlikely try on 60 minutes, Luke Swain playing in Stuart Littier, who scampered between the posts for a try converted by Stefan Ratchford.

But normal service was resumed 10 minutes later as a lovely grubber kick from Obst saw winger Damian Blanch race to the right-hand corner and get his hands on the ball, but the Trinity scrum-half missed the conversion.

After leading 28-0 at the break, it had been a rather more subdued second half, although it would have taken a mighty effort for Trinity to have produced the stunning form of the opening 20 minutes for the entire game.

Salford coach Shaun McRae said: "It didn't go according to plan at the start of the game.

"In the first 19 sets we had four of them and made errors on two of those.

"They were very good with the ball early on, we were a bit passive defensively and didn't control their big men or their off-loads and you can see what happens when you give a side a start like that."

But the City Reds coach insisted positives could be taken from their improved second-half showing.

He added: "If we can take the first half as a bit of an aberration and talk about the second half then we can find a lot of positives in that game."

Wakefield: Blaymire, Blanch, Gleeson, Millard, Murphy, Demetriou, Obst, Tronc, Leo-Latu, Moore, Ferguson, Henderson, Morrison. Substitutes: Korkidas, Cooke, Davey, Gledhill.

Salford City Reds: Fitzpatrick, Tyrer, Henry, Gibson, Broughton, Holdsworth, M. Smith, Boyle, Alker, Parker, Littler, Adamson, Swain. Substitutes: Cashmere, Sidlow, Jewitt, Ratchford.

Referee: G Hewer (Whitehaven).