League One: North Wales Crusaders 50 London Skolars 10

London Skolars face an uphill struggle to make in the top eight in League One before the division splits after falling to a heavy defeat at North Wales Crusaders.

The signs looked ominous early on when Crusaders’ James Dandy lost control of the ball as he went over the line.

Ryan Chester was held up short of the line for Skolars, but then Dale Bloomfield broke the defence from deep in his own half before offloading to Ryan Smith to open up the scoring for North Wales.

London won possession back straight away with a kick-off that found touch, but the visitors dropped the ball early in the next move.

When Skolars conceded a penalty close to their own line, Simon Atherton dummied, the defence ran out and he had an easy run to the tryline.

The next set of six saw Alex Davidson break from deep, with Smith again finishing the move.

Ben Pointer came on as substitute for London as Charlie Lawrence went off injured.

Pointer was held up over the tryline, then a few minutes later he picked up a dropped pass as Crusaders paused in anticipation of the referee’s whistle, and the hosts regretted that error as the hooker raced past them.

Aaron Moore repeated Atherton’s move to score North Wales’ fourth try and the hosts added another just before half-time when Bloomfield patted back a high kick to the wing, where Luke Warburton caught the ball and raced over to put Crusaders 30-4 up at the break.

North Wales continued to dominate after the break as Kenny Baker gathered a chip kick before offloading to Corey Lee, who touched down on the right wing, before Bloomfield scored out wide on the left.

Skolars had a chance to score when Callum Bustin made a brea, but his pass to Michael Brown went forward.

London fell for another dummy move from Moore, with Danny Price kicking his seventh goal.

Two minutes later, Crusaders hit the half-century when another Bloomfield break saw Smith record his hat-trick.

A late consolation try came when Skolars’ player -oach Jermaine Coleman kicked to the corner for Brown to score.