Round 14
Wigan Warriors 38 d. Warrington Wolves 14

2008 engage English Super League Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: United Kingdom > National > First Grade Competition: engage English Super League

Wigan turn half-time deficit into commanding victory
Mon May 19, 2008
Source: www.superleague.co.uk

Gareth Hock celebrated his 100th engage Super League appearance in sparkling fashion as Wigan Warriors overturned a 14-6 deficit to end their losing run in emphatic style.

Hock set up two tries and scored one himself to spark a remarkable transformation as the Warriors bounced back from their Cardiff humiliation by arch rivals St Helens.

There was also a welcome return to tryscoring form by Australian stand-off Trent Barrett, last year's leading scorer who opened his engage Super League account for the season with a brace.

Yet Warrington Wolves were on course for a fifth successive derby win after dominating the first half and ought to have been comfortably ahead by the break.

Instead a slender 14-8 advantage was swept aside as Wigan hit their straps with three tries in a seven-minute spell that destroyed the Wolves defence.

Wigan, who went into the game on the back of three successive engage Super League defeats, made the best possible start when centre George Carmont took an inside pass from the returning Thomas Leuluai to crash through Warrington's defence for a fourth-minute try.

With prop Andy Coley setting a strong lead up front and Barrett producing some intelligent kicks, the Warriors looked the better team in the opening stages.

But once the visitors' pack began to achieve some parity, scrum-half Michael Monaghan was able to orchestrate a series of potent attacking moves for his side and the momentum swung in their favour.

Warrington drew level on 13 minutes when the Anderson brothers, Vinnie and Louis, combined to get Australian Matt King - surprisingly chosen on the wing - over for his first try since their 32-20 win over Wigan in March.

Chris Hicks, switched from the wing to full-back in the absence of the injured Stuart Reardon, kicked the conversion and had a try disallowed five minutes later when video referee Phil Bentham ruled there had been an obstruction before he took Monaghan's pass to cross the line.

However, the Wolves' mounting pressure paid off almost immediately when Vinnie Anderson, filling King's left centre role, won the race to Monaghan's perfectly-judged grubber kick to the line.

And it got even better for Paul Cullen's men when Warrington loaded the right side of the field and substitute Andy Bracek took Martin Gleeson's inside pass to force his way over.

Hicks was wide with both conversions and Warrington's lead was trimmed to just six points when Richards kicked a penalty just before the break.

The visitors were down to 12 men by then with Vinnie Anderson in the sin bin for a professional foul.

Wigan began the second half just as they had the first but this time found their scoring touch to turn the game on its head.

Leuluai, looking sharp on his return from duty in last week's centenary Test in Sydney, had a try disallowed by the video referee but his half-back partner Barrett made no mistake when taking a superb offload from Hock to sidestep his way over.

Hock was the architect of Wigan's next try, too, producing the break that enabled Carmont and Leuluai to get winger Liam Colbon racing for the line.

Warrington had not touched the ball when the home side extended their lead with a third try in seven minutes, Barrett taking Micky Higham's pass from dummy half to crash through the Wolves defence for his second touchdown.

Wigan's rise in confidence was matched by a noticeable drop in heads by the visitors, whose defence opened up in alarming fashion to enable barnstorming prop Iafeta Paleaaesina to set up a landmark try for Hock and substitute Joel Tomkins to bump off a series of soft tackles on a 30-metre charge to the line.

Richards, who kicked 17 goals in Wigan's Challenge Cup victory over Whitehaven earlier in the week, took his goal tally to seven from as many attempts to pile on the agony for the visitors.

Warrington's misery was complete when Monaghan limped off injured just before the end.

Report Source: www.superleague.co.uk

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