Pictures Eddie Whitham
WARRINGTON Wolves suffered their first defeat of the season as they lost 13-6 to Wigan in a bruising encounter at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
A new stadium record crowd of 15,028 witnessed arguably the best game of Super League so far this year as Wigan’s tough tackling pack managed to keep Warrington at bay.
The Wolves lack of forward options, with suspensions for Gil Dudson and Joe Philbin, meant they had to hand a debut to youngster Lucas Green and they had two outside backs on the bench.
One of those, Greg Minikin, thought he had scored a late try that would have created a frantic final few seconds of play – but it was ruled out by the video referee.
Warrington were also aggrieved by Wigan’s second try, which was referred upstairs as a ‘no try’ as Brad O’Neill appeared to bounce the ball when grounding it, while there was also a question mark over whether he was onside off Bevan French’s kick.
Wigan had taken an early when Jake Wardle, who spent time on loan at Warrington last season, crossed inside five minutes and O’Neill’s try made it 10-0 shortly before the half hour.
The visitors had controlled field position and the Wolves had virtually no attacking platforms in the first half, but managed to get on the board with a blistering counter attack try.
George Williams, who along with Paul Vaughan signed a new deal to commit his future to the club this week, blocked a Bevan French kick and sent Matty Ashton racing away down the left. Ashton found Williams on his inside who in turn found Matt Dufty, who was tackled to ground by Liam Marshall metres short. Warrington made the chance pay though when Matt Nicholson weaved inside and out of a few defenders to score against the club Warrington signed him from last season.
That gave Warrington a foothold in the game, but it proved to be the only points they scored.
The excellent Harry Smith put a penalty over four minutes after the restart to put Wigan six points in front, and when he added a drop goal on 64 minutes, Warrington needed two scores.
Josh Drinkwater thought he had one when he picked up a loose ball, only for it to be proved by the video referee that Vaughan had knocked on, but Warrington ultimately couldn’t break down the Wigan defence.
A late move right saw Minikin appear to get the ball down over the line with 30 seconds left of play and the game ended under the sound of boos from the home crowd as video referee Tom Grant denied a grandstand finish by surprisingly ruling it out.
Warrington face another title contender, St Helens, next Thursday.
Warrington: Dufty, Thewlis, Mata’utia, Ratchford, Ashton, Williams, Drinkwater, Kasiano, Walker, Vaughan, Currie, Nicholson, McGuire. Subs: Clark, Minikin, Russell, Green.
Wigan: French, Miski, King, Wardle, Marshall, Shorrocks, Smith, Singleton, Powell, Byrne, Isa, Farrell, Ellis. Subs: Havard, Mago, Pearce-Paul, O’Neill.
