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Funny game this. Going forward I thought Wigan were excellent with
great forward displays from John Bateman, Ben Flower, Lee Mossop
and Tony Clubb in particular. However defensively, 44 missed
tackles tell it's own story. That highlighted a slight eye off the
ball for this game against Hull, so to get the win still isn't a
bad thing.
A lot of talk around this game was about the youthfulness of the
Hull side but Wigan's side wasn't that old either with Ryan
Hampshire and Connor Farrell joining Oliver Gildart and George
Williams in the 17.
The absences of the experienced Matty Bowen and Sean O'Loughlin
perhaps hinted at taking this Hull side a little lightly but Shaun
Wane insisted they were both injured with a "fat knee" and a "tight
calf" respectively and to be fair Wane was always adamant it would
be a tough battle.
Like I said though, I felt it was a great effort going forward
and that's why the way we let Hull score tries doesn't worry me too
much as a one off. We will fix that I'm sure.
Although doing the commentary I was worried about Anthony
Gelling all night. He was either missing his tackle or absent from
his position, allowing Hull to hit through them holes. Him and
Matty Smith topped the missed tackles with six each and that has to
get better.
After thirty minutes Wigan had built up an 18-0 lead with three
excellent tries. First Oliver Gildart combined with George Williams
for a good length try before a beautiful offload from Gelling
squeezed Josh Charnley in the right corner. Then John Bateman, who
was back in the second row and tormenting Hull, crashed over near
the posts and Ryan Hampshire on goal kicking converted all three.
The fact Hull hit back with two tries in the final four minutes
of the half wasn't that much of a shock to me in the sense that
Wigan had been getting away with those missed tackles earlier in
the half. An intercept return 95 metres by Jamie Shaul is one of
those things but the defence around Jack Logan's try was horrible.
Marc Sneyd converting both made it 18-12 at the break.
Wigan regrouped at half time but no further scoring occurred
until the hour with Wigan having two scores chalked off by the
video. Ben Flower though crashed over on 61 minutes for 24-12 and
when Ryan Hampshire added a penalty 67 minutes you expected Hull to
fold away and accept defeat.
Credit them. They didn't do that. They found two tries in the
next five minutes with first Jordan Rankin scoring from a great
kick and then Logan claiming his second. Hull cashed in on more
poor defending by Wigan and two Sneyd conversions made it 26-24
with still eight to play.
Things looked worse for Wigan when Taulima Tautai was sin binned
for a poor dangerous tackle that will surely leave him sweating on
the disciplinary on Monday.
Wigan, to be fair though, muscled up with twelve men in the
final six minutes to see the game out and add a last minute try
through Joe Burgess that made it 30-24 and although Rocky missed
his first goal of the night, it didn't matter because the clock had
gone.
So not pretty but the win is the importance here. It keeps us
well in control of a home play off and Leeds poor loss in France
still leaves us with a great shot of league leadership. Winning the
derby next week would be huge for many reasons and that's why
getting Bowen and O'Loughlin fresh isn't a bad call. |
