Wakefield Trinity 40 Toulouse Olympique 22 - Wildcats do enough to reach last eight of Challenge Cup

The final score flattered the Super League hosts, who raced into a 22-0 lead after 16 minutes, but were poor after that.

Toulouse – of Kingstone Press League One - outscored them 22-18 in the final 64 minutes and there were only six points in it as late as the 73rd minute.

Wildcats scored four tries in the opening 16, Tom Johnstone bagging the first and last of those and Jacob Miller and Craig Hall – with a long-range interception – also crossing.

Liam Finn kicked three conversions and Wakefield were cruising at 22-0, but they eased off and the French team began to adjust to the pace of the game.

Gavin Marguerite got them off the mark with a fine finish after some excellent offloading and Mourad Kriouache went in from acting-half, Mark Kheirallah’s goal cutting Wakefield’s lead at the break to 12 points.

Toulouse had all the pressure at the start of the second half and missed two good chance to get more points on the board before Matty Ashurst went over for the hosts’ fifth try with 22 minutes left.

Liam Finn’s fourth goal made it 28-10, but Danny Hulme responded almost immediately with a well-taken touchdown, which Kheirallah converted.

Kuni Minga crossed again for the visitors, the full-back adding the extras and Wakefield could not breathe easily until seven minutes from the end when Johnstone pounced on a mistake to complete his hat-trick.

In the final seconds Hall stole the ball from Marguerite and sent Johnstone over again, with Finn’s sixth conversion completing the scoring.