Warrington Wolves slip to another defeat as play-off chasers gain ground

Pictures Eddie Whitham

WARRINGTON Wolves fell to their seventh defeat in eight games as they were beaten 26-12 at Wigan on Friday night.

The Wolves couldn’t build on a strong start and lost prop Joe Philbin to a second half concussion.

After going in at 12-all at half time, Daryl Powell’s side were kept scoreless after the break and they are now just two points away from falling out of the play-off places.

They made the most of a bright start with James Harrison crashing over for the first try after Daryl Clark had taken on an offload from Philbin, after the Wolves had forced a repeat set by driving Wigan back behind their own line.

Wigan hit-back when an excellent Bevan French pass caught out the Wolves’ right edge defence and enabled Liam Marshall to tip-toe along the touchline to score, with Harry Smith’s conversion levelling things up at 6-6.

With Danny Walker playing at half-back in the continued absence of George Williams, Clark was relishing the opportunity to play a full game at hooker and he scored Warrington’s second try, when he spotted a gap close to the line and got on the outside of Liam Farrell to go over.

But the scores were levelled by half time thanks to an excellent try scored by French. Smart work by Harry Smith took Harrison and Sam Kasiano out of the game as they looked to pressurise a kick on the last tackle, and instead the Warriors ran it, with Jake Wardle breaking away on the left, using his winger as a decoy and feeding French on the inside.

It was still game on going in to the second half, but the home side gradually exerted authority.

A sloppy penalty conceded by Kasiano, who tackled Marshall without the ball, gifted Smith the opportunity to knock a penalty over for 14-12 and they didn’t look back.

Wardle and Farrell added tries in the final quarter to seal the win to move Wigan up to third in the table, two points ahead of Warrington, who have a week off next week due to the Challenge Cup semi-finals.

Wigan: Field, Miski, King, Wardle, Marshall, French, Smith, Ellis, O’Neill, Byrne, Shorrocks, Farrell, Smithies. Subs: Pearce-Paul, Mago, Hill, Nsemba.

Warrington: Dufty, Russell, Mata’utia, Ratchford, Minikin, Walker, Drinkwater, Dudson, Clark, Vaughan, Currie, Harrison, Philbin. Subs: Kasiano, Bullock, Whitehead, Holroyd.

Starting the game with intent 💪@WarringtonRLFC with an early lead on @SkySportsRL Main Event 📺#SLWigWar pic.twitter.com/FQ6TAPBJzv

— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) July 14, 2023