Wigan win against the Wolves

• Match Report as Wigan Warriors win against Warrington Wolves on Friday evening.
• Liam Marshall scored a second half hat-trick, with Sam Halsall and Jake Bibby also on the scoresheet.
• FT | Wigan Warriors 32-6 Warrington Wolves.

Wigan Warriors came from behind to take the victory over Warrington Wolves at the DW Stadium, reclaiming the Locker Cup.

Sam Halsall got Wigan off the board with a late effort in the first half, before second half efforts from Jake Bibby and Liam Marshall got Wigan some breathing space at 16-6. Marshall completed his hat-trick with two more scores before Jai Field rounded off the evening with a try to confirm the 32-6 win.

Report

Wigan had the best of the opening exchanges, with two strong sets against the Warrington back line but a knock-on close to the goal line denied Wigan an early opportunity and it remained scoreless for the opening 15 minutes.

Bevan French thought he’d opened the scoring in the 16th minute, Jai Field working to the right edge of the field before getting a pass away to French who got the ball down. The effort went to the video referee which showed French’s foot go into touch and it remained 0-0.

Warrington did get the first score of the game, as Ben Currie ran onto a crossfield kick to ground the ball just short of the dead ball line, Ratchford converted and the Wolves had a 6-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Warrington threatened with another few further opportunities, but a combination of good defence and handling errors saw the score remain, until the 39th minute when a great team move saw Sam Halsall finish off in the corner to get Wigan on the board, the conversion was missed and Wigan went in trailing 6-4.

The Warriors soon got their noses in front after the restart though, Pearce-Paul worked the ball right up to the goal line before getting an offload away to Jai Field to send Jake Bibby easing over. Harry Smith added the conversion and Wigan were 10-6 up.

A pass from Bevan French went into the hands of Matty Ashton to race away, Jai Field caught the winger up to tackle in on half way and from the play the ball Liam Marshall pounced on the stray ball to win it back for Wigan. Running it forward it was Liam Marshall who got on the end of a fantastic move to the right and Wigan extended their lead to 16-6 with a Harry Smith goal.

Wigan got themselves further ahead in the 68th minute, a high bomb from Harry Smith was collected brilliantly by Bevan French to get a quickfire offload to Liam Marshall to dive in at the corner.

Marshall completed a second half hat-trick just three minutes later as a teasing kick wasn’t dealt with and the Warriors winger was there to ground the ball, Smith added the conversion from the far touchline and it was 26-6 with less than 10 minutes to go.

Jai Field rounded off the evening with a nice dart to score just before the full time hooter, the touchline conversion from Smith was right between the sticks to give Wigan the 32-6 win.

Gallery:

Wigan Warriors: Jai Field, Bevan French, Sam Halsall, Jake Bibby, Liam Marshall, Cade Cust, Harry Smith, Mike Cooper, Joe Shorrocks, Liam Byrne, Willie Isa, Kai Pearce-Paul, Morgan Smithies.

Interchange: Brad Singleton, Patrick Mago, Kaide Ellis, Oliver Partington.

Tries: Halsall (39′), Bibby (44′), Marshall (58′, 68′, 71′), Field (78′)

Goals: Smith 4/6

Warrington Wolves: Josh Thewlis, Connor Wrench, Peter Mata’utia, Jake Wardle, Matty Ashton, Stefan Ratchford, George Williams, James Harrison, Daryl Clark, Robbie Mulhern, Ben Currie, Matty Nicholson, Oliver Holmes.

Interchange: Jason Clark, Joe Bullock, Danny Walker, Thomas Mikaele.

Tries: Currie (20′)

Goals: Ratchford 1/1

Referee: Jack Smith

Attendance: 13,261