Warrington Wolves turn form book upside down to defeat Wigan Warriors

WARRINGTON Wolves turned the form book upside down “against all the odds” with a stunning 17-6 victory over arch rivals Wigan Warriors to keep their top four hopes alive.

A superb individual try by man-of-the-match Richie Myler, who showed footballing skills to open up the Wigan defence in the 12th minute, set the injury ravaged Wolves on their way to a famous victory.

Delighted Head Coach Tony Smith was full of praise for his team as they defeated Wigan for the first time since June 2013.

“Our backs are to the wall at the moment but the walking wounded dug deep against all the odds, which is the beauty of sport,” enthused Smith.

“Half the team didn’t train this week and we will have paid the price again tonight with a few more taking knocks. But all the boys were up for it. We were not that great in attack but defended really well and Wigan were not at their best. But I am really proud of my boys.

With Warrington’s inconsistent form and lengthy casualty list, added to by the suspension of Ben Currie, Wigan Warriors, pushing to challenge Leeds at the top of the table were odds on favourites to win.

But when Myler opened the scoring with a stunning solo try after kicking through, and then kicking again to regather and score behind the sticks, an upset looked on the cards. Gareth O’Brien added the extras and later slotted over a drop-goal just before the break to make it 7-0.

Then with Brad Dwyer on for the closing stages the young hooker first won a penalty and then slipped a fine pass to send Ryan Atkins over by the posts with O’Brien again on target making it 13-0 at the interval.

With Warrington showing plenty of power and aggression firey prop Ashton Sims was placed on report three minutes into the new half after appearing to throw a couple of punches but it was clear the Wolves were not going to take a backward step.

A great break by Dwyer put the Wolves back on the front foot and Myler slipped out a fine pass to send O’Brien side-stepping his way to the line to score. His conversion appeared to be good but was ruled out by the officials making it 17-0.

Nerves started to jangle on 56 minutes when Matty Smith kicked through allowing winger Dom Manfredi to outpace Gene Ormsby to score in the corner. Matty Bowen kept his cool to land a fine conversion from out wide to make it 17-6.

On 65 minutes Smith kicked a fine 40-20 to put the Wolves under more pressure but even when Kevin Penny dropped a high kick on the 5th tackle giving the visitors a repeat set, the defence stood firm, forcing Smith to knock on and with it Wigan’s chances of a snatching a late fightback all but disappeared.

Wigan boss Shaun Wane had no complaints with the defeat, admitting his team had been “outenthused” and beaten by the better team.

 

WOLVES: Matty Russell; Gene Ormsby, Stefan Ratchford, Ryan Atkins, Kevin Penny; Gareth O’Brien, Richie Myler; Chris Hill, Daryl Clark, Ashton Sims, Ben Westwood, Joe Philbin, Ben Harrison.

Subs: Brad Dwyer, Roy Asotasi, George King, Sam Wilde.

WIGAN: Matthew Bowen; Dominic Manfredi, Anthony Gelling, Dan Sarginson, Joe Burgess; George Williams, Matthew Smith; Dominic Crosby, Michal McIlorum, Ben Flower, Joel Tomkins, Liam Farrell, Ryan Sutton.

Subs: Sam Powell, Lee Mossop, Taulima Tautai, Larne Patrick.