Wakefield defeat Wigan
12 Apr 2019
Wakefield Trinity overcame a succession of injury blows to claim a remarkable 30-20 victory over Wigan Warriors that strengthened their position in the top five of Betfred Super League.
Chris Chester’s side have hit form following an inconsistent start to the year but they were pushed to the limit on Friday after losing Anthony England, Reece Lyne, Jacob Miller and Kyle Wood to injury.
That they still managed to record a third straight win said as much about Wigan, the Super League champions slumping to a seventh defeat of the season.
In-form winger Joe Burgess’ 100th career try appeared enough to send the Warriors into the break with a hard-earned lead until Wakefield blitzed their visitors in a devastating four-minute spell.
Craig Kopczak ended Wigan’s resistance on their own line and Joe Arundel finished a fine move before Max Jowitt raced clear to make it 16-4 as the half-time hooter sounded.
Ben Jones-Bishop ended his long wait for his first try of 2019 and then added a second to finish the Warriors off, ensuring George Williams’ effort and Burgess’ hat-trick were in a losing cause.
Wakefield boss Chris Chester said: "The fighting spirit we showed tonight was unbelievable. For David Fifita to do 80 minutes is an unbelievable effort.
“I’m just a bit deflated because of the fact we’ve lost so many key players tonight. With a couple of them I don’t think it’s going to be short term either. It’s a tough one and kind of takes the gloss off the result."
Wigan boss Adrian Lam said: “It was frustrating. With the side we had we competed well for 35 minutes then four or five minutes of mayhem turned the whole game.
“I’m looking forward to making sure we just get through this period in good shape and when players start coming back I think we can do some really damaging stuff at the back end of the year.??
