Warrington Wolves 20-22 Wigan Warriors
The Warriors continued their 100% winning start to the season
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By Tom Powell
Bradford Bulls moved themselves off the foot of the Super League with a 41-22 win over Castleford Tigers at the Grattan Stadium. |  |
Saturday, 20, Feb 2010 06:58
By Tom Powell
Wigan Warriors leapt to the top of the Super League after pulling off a dramatic comeback to beat Warrington Wolves 22-20 at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
An Amos Roberts-inspired Warriors side trailed 16-4 at the break but notched up 18 unanswered points in the second half and held off a late Wolves comeback to win an enthralling battle.
The loss is Warrington's first of the season as they remain third in the table but Wigan remain unbeaten and leapfrog the Wildcats to go top.
Roberts gave the Warriors an early lead before tries from Richie Myler, Chris Riley and David Solomona put the Wolves in control going into the break with a 16-4 advantage.
Roberts got his second try 15 minutes after the break before Darrell Goulding and Joel Tomkins gave the visitors the victory despite a late Louis Anderson consolation.
The Wolves made one change from the squad that won away to Castleford Tigers last weekend with prop Mike Cooper in for Tyrone McCarthy.
Phil Bailey made his debut as he came into the Warriors squad whilst Roberts continued to debutise at full-back in place of the injured Cameron Phelps.
The Wolves came close to an opening score in the fifth minute as Lee Briers chipped a kick in the direction of Riley but Pat Richards was on hand to palm the ball to safety at the expense of a drop-out.
Despite being camped on their own line for much of the opening exchanges the Warriors were first over the whitewash as Roberts gave them a 4-0 lead.
Wigan's leading scorer received the ball on halfway before powering through Ben Harrison's feeble challenge and stepping inside Matt King and Myler and going over in the right corner.
The hosts continued to attack and had their reward as they took a 6-4 lead with 18 minutes played.
George Carmont coughed up possession on halfway from which Harrison and Adrian Morley powered Warrington to within five metres of the Warriors line.
From the play-the-ball Myler ran onto Michael Monaghan's flat pass and crashed over giving Lee Briers a simple conversion to nudge the Wolves ahead.
And their second try came 12 minutes before the break and Carmont was again at fault, giving away a needless penalty which gifted the Wolves superb attacking territory.
But credit to the Wolves backs for finishing the move off, Briers, Richard Mathers and Chris Bridge showing lightning quick hands to create the space for Riley to go over in the corner.
Three minutes before the break the Wolves stretched their lead to give the Warriors a mountain to climb as Solomona powered his way to the whitewash.
Monaghan, two minutes after being denied a try by the video referee, fed the former Bradford Bulls man and he took two defenders with him as he fell over the line. Briers added the extras to give the hosts a 16-4 half-time lead.
The first 15 minutes of the second half was a touch scrappy with Wigan looking for a score to get them back in the contest and Warrington looking to kill the game off, neither side able to do so with errors becoming a frequent occurrence.
Perhaps slightly against the run of play it was the Warriors who grabbed the crucial first try of the second half on 55 minutes.
The ever dangerous Roberts waltzing passed his tackler and stretching over despite the attentions of Mathers and Ryan Atkins. The deficit stayed at eight as the usually reliable boot of Richards failed for the second time.
The game had been completely turned on its head and it was no coincidence that it occurred following the departure of Briers who limped off with an ankle injury.
Roberts again involved in Wigan's third try on the hour, jinking his way through the Wolves defence and flicking the ball to Goulding who squeezed in at the corner. Richards landed the touchline conversion to make it 16-14 and set up a tense final 20 minutes.
It was all square going into the last 13 minutes after Morley, lucky to be playing after a dangerous tackle last weekend, was again adjudged to have gone too high in the tackle and Richards kicked the resulting penalty.
But they were not all square for long as the Wigan comeback was complete with a Joel Tomkins try.
Brother Sam set the move on its way, collecting a delicate chip over the static Wolves defence and sending Thomas Leuluai away before he fed Tomkins to finish with ease. Richards added the extras and Wigan had a 22-16 lead going into the last ten minutes.
And the action didn't stop there as the home side came storming back to lift the Halliwell Jones faithful once again, Monaghan, Morley and Mathers combined to send Louis Anderson over to reduce the gap to two.
Myler missed the chance to pull the sides level as he conversion drifted wide but Solomona missed an even bigger opportunity to snatch the win in the final minute. The big Kiwi trundled to within an inch of the Wigan line and only needing to touch down he knocked on handing the win and top spot in the Super League to Wigan.