Wigan stage fightback to beat Warrington in Super League epic

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/sep/11/wigan-warrington-super-league-match-report

Version 0 of 1.

Wigan overturned an 18-4 half-time deficit to gain a precious 24-20 victory in an epic repeat of last October’s Grand Final to ensure a top-three finish in the Super League.

In a classic final match of the regular season for both clubs, six of the eight tries were scored by wingers, with England’s Josh Charnley providing the highlight with an 80-metre interception for the reigning champions.

Warrington went into the match with a proud record at the DW Stadium, where they had not lost since 2009, and they looked sure to extend their unbeaten run when they ran in three converted tries in a 14-minute burst just before half-time.

But the Warriors were inspired by coach Shaun Wane’s interval pep talk as they went on to turn the game on its head in a thrilling second half to complete the league double over their rivals.

“It was a tough game but we expected that,” Wane said. “It was a good one for us – we’ll go into the play-offs with some momentum.”

The Wolves winger Joel Monaghan, Super League’s leading tryscorer, showed his danger as early as the third minute when the visitors pounced on a handling error by the Wigan full-back Matty Bowen and it took a last-ditch tackle by the youngster Joe Burgess to keep him out.

Burgess, whose duel with Monaghan provided one of a series of highlights, demonstrated superb finishing four minutes later, taking Sean O’Loughlin’s cut-out pass to cross at the corner to give the Warriors the early lead.

The youngster went close again shortly afterwards following a break by Charnley from inside his own half and then pulled off another save to deny Monaghan.

Wigan ought to have been further ahead after dominating the opening quarter but the visitors persevered and struck a purple patch to seize control of the game.

Monaghan took Chris Bridge’s pass to finish off a slick handling move for his first try on 26 minutes and eight minutes later Bridge carved out one for the scrum-half Richie Myler.

Myler then hoisted a kick for Monaghan to touch down with inches to spare for his 28th try of the campaign and Stefan Ratchford’s third conversion made it 18-4 at the break.

Wane’s harsh words at the interval clearly did the trick for the champions, who were more like their old selves at the start of the season half.

The centre Dan Sarginson was brought down just short of the line before getting Burgess over for his second try and on 52 minutes Charnley grabbed his first try, hacking the ball ahead and winning the race to get the final touch.

With Matty Smith unable to add any of the conversions, Wigan still trailed by six points and Ratchford made it 20-12 with a 58th-minute penalty awarded for a shoulder charge by Joel Tomkins on O’Brien.

Both sides were down to 12 men by then after Paul Wood (Warrington) and Eddy Pettybourne (Wigan) were sent to the sin-bin for trading punches, with Wood clearly the aggressor – he is likely to face more punishment when the incident is viewed by the Rugby Football League’s match-review panel on Monday – and it was the Warriors who made the most of the extra space.

Charnley swooped on Michael Monaghan’s sloppy pass to race 80 metres for an opportunist try on 62 minutes and three minutes later stand-off Blake Green forced his way over from close range to restore his side’s lead.

Smith added both goals to make it 24-20 and Warrington’s hopes sunk further when the dangerous Bridge hobbled off.

Wigan thought they had scored again when the centre Anthony Gelling re-gathered his own kick to touch down but the try was disallowed by video referee Richard Silverwood for obstruction and that set up a tense finale, with the Warriors hanging on at the end.

Warrington will check on injuries sustained by Bridge (ankle) and the forward Ben Harrison (knee), but the second-rower James Laithwaite has been cleared of any serious damage after being carried off on a stretcher and will be fit for the opening round of the play-offs.