Wigan 6-24 Warrington
Warrington Wolves opened daylight between themselves and the chasing pack in Super League following a four try success at the DW Stadium as notable for defence as it was attack.
The Wolves have now won six games on the spin since their opening day blemish against Huddersfield and condemned Wigan to their first league defeat of the season.
This was a fierce battle from the start with plenty of heavy tackles. The first chance of the game was fashioned by Wigan who tried to target youngster Rhys Evans with a Thomas Leuluai kick. Whilst Evans failed to take the ball, so too did Wigan and the chance was lost.
It was Warrington that opened the score when a flowing play down the right brought Matty Blythe time and space to finish and a difficult conversion was made to look easy by Brett Hodgson.
Warrington looked the better attacking team and were unlucky when Richie Myler blistered through the midfield only to be poleaxed to the floor by Andy Coley.
Gradually, Wigan redressed the balance with Jeff Lima eager for work. Debutant Brett Finch scored a 21st minute try for the hosts with a combination of luck and opportunism as he dabbed the ball forward from dummy half and it ricocheted off the posts into his grateful arms. Charnley struck the conversion to tie the game up.
Charnley was then targetted by Warrington and the youngster found himself under tremendous pressure before coming up with a error in the 31st minute. A well placed kick from Lee Briers was taken by the young winger and in his haste he threw a hard pass at Sam Tomkins who had nowhere to run.
The resulting drop out saw Warrington go on the attack and after Myler and Briers got the link going, Blythe found himself in possession again. As Charnley moved in to tackle, he left his wing unmarked and an offload put Joel Monaghan in by the flag for Hodgson to expertly convert again.
This sparked Wigan into action and on the back of a magnificent 40-20 by Tomkins, the hosts lay seige to the Wolves line, forcing three sets of possession only for Warrington to keep their lead intact heading into the break when a clash after the hooter threatened to boil over.
The second half started in the same way as the first ended, with Wigan in ascendancy but unable to breach a steadfast defence. Lee Mossop washeld over the line and further attack came to nought before Former state-of-origin halfback Finch juggled, then lost a dipping pass. Just a couple of minutes later, Warrington got down the ground with four solid forward
drives before a startling piece of acceleration took Briers past one defender and he kicked forward. Charnley contested but another error from the winger saw Joel Monaghan touch down his second of the game, a try that was awarded by the video referee. Once again Hodgson was in range with the boot and it was 18-6.
Wigan were then unfortunate to see a Ryan Hoffman try chalked off by the video referee and breathed a sigh of relief at the other end when the screen was looked at again to decide if Evans touched down in the corner.
That try was disallowed and the scoreline remained the same until the 65th minute when a risky pass from Sean O’Loughlin was picked up by Richie Myler and the halfback ran 60 metres to secure his 6th try of the season and Hodgson’s kick brought the 6th try of the season and largely dominant second half was reward for the efforts of pack men Michael Monaghan, Simon Grix, Ben Westwood, Ben Harrison and Paul Wood.
WIGAN: Tomkins, Goulding, Marsh, Carmont, Charnley; Finch, Leuluai; Coley, McIlorum, Prescott, Hansen, Hoffman, O’Loughlin. Subs: Lima, Roberts, Mossop, Tuson.
Try: Finch (21).
Goal: Charnley 1/1.
WARRINGTON: Hodgson, Evans, Bridge, Blythe, J Monaghan; Briers, Myler; Morley, M Monaghan, Carvell, Grix, Westwood, Harrison. Subs: Higham, Solomona, Wood, Clarke.
Tries: Blythe (9), J Monaghan (32, 47), Myler (65)
Goals: Hodgson 4/4.
Referee: Mr Thiery Alibert
Half-time: 12-6 to Warrington.
Attendance: 21,056.