Warrington Wolves 32-20 Wigan Warriors

Engage Super League XIII - Round 5
The Halliwell Jones Stadium, Warrington
Attendance - 13,024

Warrington Wolves stormed into third place in the engage Super League as Wigan Warriors’ misery at the Halliwell Jones Stadium continued with the dismissal of full-back Richard Mathers.

The Warriors had lost on all five of their previous visits to Warrington’s new ground, including last year’s painful Carnegie Challenge Cup semi-final, and tonight never looked like ending their hoodoo in front of a capacity crowd of 13,024.

They were already down and out, trailing 16-4, when Mathers became the first player to be sent off in Super League XIII when he was punished for a high tackle on Australian Test centre Matt King.

Referee Steve Ganson had no hesitation in brandishing the red card on 49 minutes after King was poleaxed by what appeared to be a swinging arm from the former Gold Coast Titans player, who was playing his fifth game since his return to Super League.

The match had to be held up for six minutes while King had treatment on the pitch before being carried off on a stretcher with concussion.

The dismissal reduced Wigan for a spell to 11 men, with hooker Michael McIlorum having been sent to the sin bin four minutes earlier for persistent lying on in the tackle, and Warrington immediately took advantage to wrap up their fourth win out of five.

The Wolves, who dropped promising winger Kevin Penny, never looked back after Jon Clarke and Michael Monaghan combined to get loose forward Vinnie Anderson striding through a yawning gap in the visitors’ defence for the first of their six tries after only three minutes.

Wigan struggled to contain the rampaging runs of seasoned front rowers Adrian Morley and Paul Rauhihi and it was no surprise when their defence cracked again in the 17th minute, King going over after a superb offload from the tackle by Louis Anderson.

Monaghan was involved in both tries and he was once more the most influential player on the pitch, with Wigan playmaker Trent Barrett largely subdued.

The half was a stop-start affair with 12 penalties awarded in the first quarter, mostly for lying on in the tackle, and Ganson’s patience ran out in the 22nd minute when he sent Warrington second rower Louis Anderson to the sin bin.

Wigan turned down three kickable penalties and their enterprise finally paid off on 29 minutes when second rower Gareth Hock’s offload unlocked a 12-man defence and Barrett’s cut-out pass enabled winger Liam Colbon to cross unopposed at the corner.

Warrington’s leading tryscorer Chris Hicks went close to scoring after taking a superb pass from Martin Gleeson but Mathers just managed to get across to bundle him into touch.

However, Warrington’s pressure paid off just before the interval when substitute Rob Parker took Morley’s short pass to crash over for his side’s third try, to which Lee Briers added a second goal.

There was no way back for Wigan once Mathers was shown the red card and superb handling paved the way for Martin Gleeson and Paul Johnson to cross for tries in a four-minute purple patch.

Hicks eventually added to his tally of six tries while Wigan gained some consolation in the shape of late touchdowns from prop Andy Coley - his first for the club - centre Daryl Goulding and second rower Harrison Hansen which gave the scoreline some respectability.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes