Bad Blood: Warrington defeat Wigan
16 Mar 2019
Warrington Wolves maintained their 100% home record in this season's Betfred Super League with a 25-12 victory against defending champions Wigan Warriors.
Stefan Ratchford scored a try and kicked four goals as last year's beaten Grand Finalists survived a second-half fightback from the Warriors, who suffered a fifth defeat in six games.
The hosts took the lead in the opening 10 minutes as Jake Mamo collected Blake Austin's pass to touch down, before Ratchford crossed and added a conversion and a penalty to make it 12-0 at the break.
Josh Charnley grabbed a third try early in the second half after the visitors failed to deal with Austin's kick.
But the Warriors fought back, getting on the board just after the hour mark through Tom Davies' try before Willie Isa crossed three minutes later on his 100th Wigan appearance.
Dec Patton's drop goal edged Warrington seven points ahead and the hosts sealed it through Jack Hughes' late try, despite Ben Westwood's late dismissal.
Warrington coach Steve Price said: "Credit to Wigan, they’ve been the benchmark footy team for a number of years now. They’re resilient and we knew they weren’t going to go away. They had a crack but we stayed in the fight and to come away with the win was very pleasing.
“I thought Daryl Clark was outstanding but there were a number of really good performances.??
Wigan coach Adrian Lam said: "I’m really proud of the team tonight. From the start of the season, I wanted to see somewhere in our performance where there was effort on effort and plenty of energy and I saw that tonight.
“I couldn’t be happier. I know we lost the game but there were signs there tonight that we’re back as a team. Obviously there is still some work to do but it was a completely different team to last week. I said to the coaches in the box ‘this is a turning point’."
