19 hours ago
13
Betfred Super League
Wigan (12) 24
Tries: Field 2, Miski 2 Goals: Smith 4
St Helens (2) 14
Tries: Murphy, Paasi Goals: Whitby 3
Jai Field and Abbas Miski scored two tries apiece to lead Wigan Warriors to victory in their Good Friday derby despite a strong St Helens comeback in the second half.
Field, Super League's leading try scorer, scored either side of a Miski score to give the reigning champions a commanding 18-2 lead early in the second half.
Saints looked down and out as both sides committed errors in a tense encounter, but Lewis Murphy's brilliant finish in the corner and a powerhouse try from Agnatius Paasi dragged them back to within four points.
With new signing Christian Wade watching from the stands, Wigan clinched it with a late Miski try to move on to the shoulder of pace-setters Hull Kingston Rovers at the top of the table.
After suffering two defeats in March, the reigning champions have now won three on the bounce to move two points behind the Robins, and they made a powerful statement with a dominant performance against their old rivals from the other side of Billinge Hill.
In front of a sell-out 25,000 crowd at the Brick Community Stadium, the two sides exchanged penalties in a cagey start, with Field having a try chalked off by video referee Liam Rush, who spotted that Tyler Dupree has obstructed George Delaney's attempted tackle.
A few minutes later, Field nailed a try which did count, timing his run to perfection to gather Bevan French's exquisite lobbed kick and score under the posts.
Wigan turned the screw and, when the influential Harry Smith put up a testing kick, French got a telling touch that went backwards and Miski had acres of space to go over and extend their lead.
Moses Mbye's shoulder barge to the head of Zach Eckersley further hindered Saints as the Saints hooker trooped off to the sin-bin, but shortly into the second half the numbers were evened up as Sam Walters caught Jon Bennison high and was shown a yellow card.
Paasi handed Wigan what seemed to be the winning try, by trying a silly offload deep in his own territory. The Warriors were ruthless, and Smith sent Field racing through for his second try.
With Joe Batchelor limping off with an apparent hamstring injury and Jon Bennison needing a head injury assessment, Saints looked finished but they rallied well to stage a grand ending.
Wigan started to make uncharacteristic errors and when one from Liam Byrne gifted them possession, Tristan Sailor gave Murphy a chance which he finished with a spectacular leap in the corner.
Buoyed up, Saints went surging forwards and when Jake Wardle also spilled the ball in front of his own posts, Paasi made up for his earlier mistake by powering over despite being decorated by three tacklers.
Inside nine minutes, the lead had been cut to four points, but the travelling fans' belief dissipated as Sailor sought to launch another attack but dropped the ball, allowing Eckersley to scoop it up and send Miski over to make sure of Wigan's third win over their rivals on the trot.
Wigan: Field; Miski, Eckersley, Wardle, Marshall; French; Smith; Byrne, Leeming, Walters, Nsemba, Farrell, Ellis
Interchanges: O'Neill, Forber, Dupree, Hill
St Helens: Sailor; Bennison, Whitley, Percival, Murphy; Welsby, Whitby; Walmsley, Mbye, Lees, Sironen, Batchelor, Knowles
Interchanges: Clark, Paasi, Delaney, Sambou
Referee: Chris Kendall
