Rugby League: Vikings to Go Down Fighting

After a spiteful game featuring five sin-binnings, a biting allegation and a brawl, the Widnes coach Frank Endacott made no effort to deny the inevitability of relegation.

This defeat leaves the Vikings five points behind Wakefield, and although they have seven games remaining Endacott admitted he expects to return home to New Zealand at the end of the season because his contract is only valid in the Super League.

"I think I'll be going back a lot sooner than I intended, I'll tell you that," he said. "It's just an absolute disastrous result for us. I expected a result today, but it's pretty obvious that just maybe we're not up to it."

That inadequacy was exposed inside four minutes as Wakefield broke away for David Solomona and Colum Halpenny to create a slick try for Sam Obst.

They took more than 20 minutes to score again, with the whistle-happy referee Steve Ganson continuing to favour Widnes in an infuriatingly high penalty count and Trinity's combative hooker David March making the first of his two trips to the sin bin for persistent holding down.

But after Solomona backed his own strength to score from acting half on the sixth tackle, two more quick tries from Obst and Semi Tadulala established a 24-0 half-time lead.

After that it was a question of how many - and when Tadulala completed his hat-trick with two more tries in the first four minutes of the second half, the answer looked likely to be rather a lot.

But with Widnes scoring four tries to one in the last half-hour, three to Gray Viane and one for Sala Fa'alogo, the Vikings confirmed that lack of quality, rather than spirit, is their basic problem.

Relegation may turn out to be a blessing in disguise as a season in the National League will allow them to weed out the senior players who have been found wanting while Bobbie Goulding, a Widnesian who has enjoyed such success as player-coach of Rochdale, is the obvious candidate to succeed Endacott in the autumn.

Meanwhile Tony Smith seems certain to be given the Wakefield job on a permanent basis after the second win in three games since he was appointed caretaker following the dismissal of Shane McNally.

Trinity were dragged down to Widnes's level in a second half memorable only for the fight that was sparked by an unpleasant off-the-ball tackle by the Vikings hooker Shane Millard on Olivier Elima.

That incident was put on report to be studied by the Super League video review panel today, along with the brawl - after which Mark Smith, John Stankevitch, Michael Korkidas and March again were sin-binned - and Stankevitch's claim that he was bitten midway through the first half. But it was the reality bite from which Widnes will take longer to recover.

· Ben Harris's hat-trick of tries helped Bradford record their first win in four games in a 58-12 win over bottom club Leigh. Ian Henderson scored a try on his home debut.