Hull KR 28-36 Wigan Warriors

Correspondent

A stunning first twenty minutes of the second half gave Wigan victory over a resilient Hull KR side at Craven Park.

The home side looked to be out of it with the scoreline at 30-16, but two tries with ten minutes remaining reduced the deficit to just two points. But victory was sealed for Wigan by Pat Richards, starting and finishing a remarkable counter attacking move.

Brian Noble’s charges were shell-shocked after a ferocious first five minutes from the Robins, which resulted in two tries for winger Peter Fox.

The England star supported a break to dive over for his first, while his second required more effort on his own part, stumbling as he broke the defence again, but managed to escape the clutches of Tim Smith to scramble his way to the line.

But Wigan got back into it when Phil Bailey crossed, and were level minutes later when George Carmont scored.

Rovers looked to respond accordingly, but Wigan hit the front foot when Richards dived over in an almost impossible situation, despite close attentions from the Robins’ full-back Shaun Briscoe.

But captain Vella ensured Rovers went back in front when he latched onto Michael Dobson‘s ball to power over and score.

Bailey’s second try gave Wigan the advantage once more, and that was extended when Harrison Hansen crossed with thirty minutes remaining, succeeding a superb 40-20 from Sam Tomkins.

And it was Tomkins who put the Warriors firmly in command after excellent work from Sean O’Loughlin, slicing through weak KR defence.

But a late rally from Hull KR set up a tense final ten minutes thanks to tries from Daniel Fitzhenry and Jake Webster.

Victory was sealed for the Warriors thanks to Richards though, who started and finished a sweeping counter attack that started in his own twenty, and ended with the full-back scoring under the posts.