Five unanswered second-half tries gave Batley Bulldogs victory over the Lions, who will now face Bradford Bulls or Workington Town in a playoff to avoid relegation to League 1.
Aaron Hall scored the Lions’ only try of the afternoon
Batley Bulldogs 40-6 Swinton Lions
The Lions future in the Championship still hangs in the balance and they now face a play-off game against either Bradford Bulls or Workington Town in two weeks after suffering defeat against the Bulldogs.
Fellow relegation rivals Rochdale Hornets secured the victory they needed over Sheffield Eagles to leapfrog Swinton and secure their place in the league for 2019.
Adam Gledhill put the Bulldogs ahead when he scored under the posts in the seventh minute and Dave Scott added the conversion but the Lions hit back eight minutes later when the Bulldogs gave away back to back penalties and Aaron Hall crashed over by the posts with Jack Hansen adding the conversion.
For the next twenty minutes both sides had chances but could not convert them into points until five minutes from the break, when Louis Jouffret sent a kick uphill towards the line and Sam Smeaton outpaced the defence to score on the right. Pat Walker added the conversion with the Lions hanging on for the halftime hooter.
It was always going to be advantage Bulldogs in the second half when they were playing down the slope and within five minutes Wayne Reittie scored on the right but Walker missed the conversion.
Four minutes later the home side were in again when they turned defence into attack as Scott raced half the length of the field to score and Walker converted this one. Jouffret extended Batley’s lead when there was a big overlap on the left and again this was converted and the Bulldogs now held a big lead.
The Lions were trying everything to score and forced two goal line drop-outs but could make nothing of either of them and the Bulldogs added another try three minutes from time when Jouffret scored his second and Walker again made no mistake with the kick.
Then in the final minute, the Bulldogs rounded off a convincing victory when Dom Brambani, playing his three hundred and fiftieth career game, dived in under the posts and Alex Rowe playing his final game before retirement added the conversion from in front of the posts.
