Wigan had to fight hard to overcome a spirited
Wakefield performance, especially having found themselves 12-0 down
early.
It was a blustery, and sometimes rainy, night at
Warrington and Wakefield showed their intent with early scores from
Jacob Miller and Tinirau Arona seeing them lead 12-0 in 17 minutes with
Tony Gigot converting both.
Wigan though settled down and two lovely "one-two"
combinations down the left found us level.
First Jackson Hastings found Liam Farrell before
getting the ball back to score. Then it was Bevan French and Joe Burgess
combining for an almost carbon copy. French's score and two conversions
by Zak Hardaker had it 12-12 on 29 minutes.
That score held for around 30 minutes of game time
and at times Wakefield look more likely to score. Trinity's kicking game
was exceptional with them pinning and pressuring Wigan on the try line
time and time and time again. But they couldn't find a try. Wigan's
defence too good.
A close range barge over from Sam Powell broke the
deadlock under the posts on the hour and another close range sore by
Oliver Gildart followed by a classy second for French had taken the
score from 12-12 to 28-12 in just 8 minutes and that was the game won.
Wakefield found a consolation try from Tom Johnstone
but only after he'd been denied minutes earlier by superb tackling
between Thomas Leuluai and Jake Bibby.
So not the prettiest but Wakefield tested Wigan well
in this game but patience was a virtue and they came through the test
for another 2.3% that keeps them joint top of the table ahead of playing
both St Helens and Warrington up there with them to play next in the
league. |