St Helens v Wigan Warriors - Pre Season Friendly.
Sunday 25th January 2015. Kick Off 3:00pm at Langtree Park.

Match Report

This was a very physical contest from the off and I didn't think their was much between the sides in the opening quarter despite the opening score being found by Saints Joe Greenwood, converted by Tommy Makinson for 6-0.

The more the half wore on though, the more Saints got on top and the second quarter was horrible from a Wigan point of view. Ryan Hampshire struggled at full back and threw a gift interception for Adam Swift to return for 10-0 on 21 minutes.

On the back of that, Wigan just went into a total mess. Liam Farrell in particular was guilty of losing it, conceding two back to back penalties for niggling and although Saints only scored two further tries in the final three minutes of the half, they had been more than deserved. First Atelea Vea scored with Wigan guilty of not playing to the whistle and then Makinson finished a great move off in the right corner. Two conversions had Saints 22-0 up by half time.

At this point your thinking the half back combination of George Williams and Matty Smith just isn't working and with Hampshire struggling at the back and Farrell losing it mentally, Wigan in this spell just collapsed really.

That said, the first twenty of the second half was much better and their were plenty of positives in this spell. Matty Bowen was on at full back now and he calmed us down a lot I thought. The biggest difference though was a simple one. We started to just complete sets and that helped us get forward and put Saints on the back foot. Rugby League can be that simple sometimes.

After six minutes, Wigan got on the scoreboard with a kick to the right from Matty Smith being hunted by Josh Charnley. It was right in front of me and Jordan Turner never looked up at the bomb once. He was totally fixated on blocking Charnley expecting someone else to deal with the bomb, but no one did and Josh collected, passed inside to Connor Farrell who sent John Bateman over. Smith converted for 22-6.

Wigan were now on the front foot continually and set up the final quarter well when Connor Farrell claimed a barge over try under immense defensive pressure on the hour mark. Smith converted for 22-12 and Connor almost scored again soon after for what could have been 22-18 if he had not been held up.

Saints in the end though finished the stronger and we shouldn't read anything into that because they had two extra substitutes than us. In effect those two extra were old war horses Paul Wellens and Lance Hohaia and by enthusiastic energy alone they lifted Saints to a stronger finish that Wigan couldn't match. So Saints found the last try from Joe Greenwood, which Makinson converted for a 28-12 end result.

All in all the match provided plenty of negatives in a horrible second quarter but at least their were positives for Wigan in the twenty minutes after the half time. Some are pointing to our pack being out muscled but let's remember that Sean O'Loughlin, Lee Mossop, Taulima Tautai and Ben Flower are still to be added to that pack.

Time will tell if we are ready for the kick off against Widnes but if your feeling low about us after these last two games, remember the 2013 pre season included a dire 20-0 loss at Warrington before we went on to start the year with a 42-0 win at Salford. So, the real test is still to come!

Team Sheets

Score Sheet

Scoring and Incident Pattern

Referee

Robert Hicks

Match Attendance

6,888

Weather

Not too cold.