Tries from Geraint Davies, Damien Quinn, Paul Ballard and Craig Richards made it 22-0 at the break.

Corey Simms pulled one back for the Skolars, but a superb individual try from Ballard completed the rout.

If the Crusaders beat Leigh Centurions at the Brewery Field on 18 March they will qualify for the knock-out rounds.

That would probably be at the expense of the Centurions, the cup holders.

"We've got the road to Wembley in the Carnegie Challenge Cup to think about before we face Leigh again," said Crusaders' operations manager Gerald McCarthy.

"We have to put the Northern Rail Cup firmly out of our minds for a week and concentrate our efforts on beating Eastmoor Dragons at the Brewery Field next Saturday.

"Eastmoor are in the division below us and teams from that league are constantly knocking out teams from ours in the Challenge Cup.

"We've had a good win at the Skolars but we can't be complacent."

London Skolars: Hodgkinson, Simms, Shears, Aggrey, Pittman, Thorman, Barker, Reid, Benson, Castle, Brown, Ellison, Coleman.
Replacements: Tozer for Shears (46), Honor for Reid (33), Louw for Benson (16), Price for Castle (20).

Try: Simms.

Celtic Crusaders: Johnson, Epton, Ballard, Dalle Cort, Richards, Toshack, Van Dijk, Cale, Boothroyd, Dean, G. Davies, Fitzgerald, Quinn.
Replacements: Lewis for Epton (49), Jones for Cale (18), Budworth for Boothroyd (37), H. Davies for Dean (27).

Tries: G. Davies, Quinn, Ballard 2, Richards. Goals: Quinn 4.

Att: 289