Wigan coach Matt Peet admits to feeling ’embarrassed’ after Leeds loss

Wigan boss Matt Peet admitted it was the first time he felt embarrassed in his job as head coach after his side lost to Leeds.

The Warriors gave away a 14-0 advantage as Leeds fought back in the second half to claim a 40-18 victory at the DW Stadium on Friday night.

Leeds were dealt a double blow in the first half when they lost back-rowers James Bentley to a failed head injury assessment and Zane Tetevano to a red card, but that seemed to galvanise the Rhinos as they launched a second half fightback to claim the spoils.

Speaking after the game, Peet said: “It was the first time in this job that I’ve felt a bit embarrassed with what we served up in the second half.

“The lads feel the same, they’re all pretty low”

“I thought the more we started chasing points, the uglier it turned.

“I always thought Leeds would be a threat in the second half, they are very good, ad-lib when moving the ball and they had nothing to lose being a man down and a bit behind. Their quality shone through but I thought we were very poor.

“It was obviously a poor start to the second half and I thought once we got behind we went from bad to worse.

“I’m not saying I could have envisaged the manner (in which Leeds came back) but I knew they wouldn’t go away. Anyone who has watched them this year will know they have started slow in a few games, they hang around, they express themselves with the ball and they’ve got the ability to post points in succession so I could envisage it from them, but I thought we’d put up a stiffer fight.

“We spoke at half-time about the false sense of security and how Leeds would come out firing and our actions didn’t tie in with what we said.”

Wigan face Leeds again next Saturday in the Challenge Cup sixth round at Headingley, 2:30pm kick-off.

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