Widnes Vikings 8 Wakefield Trinity 36: Tupou the architect as Trinity seal Widnes' fate

The 27-year-old Kiwi was in sparkling form for Trinity as he showed tremendous pace to score two tries and create two others for winger Mason Caton-Brown and was a constant thorn in the Vikings defence.

As well as Tupou and Caton-Brown scores, Wakefield claimed other tries through Sam Williams and Tinirau Arona with Liam Finn landing six goals to secure a convincing win.

The defeat for Widnes means they will finish in the bottom two and will face four games away and three at home as they fight for their Super League lives in the Middle 8s.

Widnes’ points came from a solitary try by Joe Mellor and two goals from Stefan Marsh which took him past the 250-point mark in his Super League career.

Widnes welcomed back scrum-half Rangi Chase after missing the last two games through suspension, while forwards Tom Olbison and Eamon O’Carroll returned on the bench after injury.

It was the home side who made the perfect start and were ahead after just six minutes when Mellor scored a fine solo try.

Tupou made a superb break down the left and his pass allowed Caton-Brown to dive over in the corner.

Widnes were then reduced to 12 men when another superb Tupou break caused havoc in the opposition defence and Vikings winger Ryan Ince was ruled to have tackled Caton-Brown before the Trinity winger received the ball and was given 10 minutes.

Tupou again took Finn’s pass to blast through the defence to score and the visitors claimed another try straight from a scrum 20 metres out – this time Williams escaping the clutches of some poor Widnes defensive efforts to touch down.

Arona was then on hand to go over in the corner with Finn goaling to make it 24-8.

Tupou had the final say when he firstly created the second of the night for Caton-Brown 10 minutes from time and then, straight from the restart, he sprinted 50 metres for another superb score.