Warrington Wolves earned a convincing 23-0 victory today against Wigan Warriors at the Halliwell Jones Stadium to progress into the semi-final of the Challenge Cup at Bolton on 6 August.
The Wolves led 16-0 at half-time and stood up in defence in the second half to present the Warriors from scoring, gaining revenge for their 38-10 defeat at the Magic Weekend in Newcastle.
Warrington pressured Wigan right from the kick-off, winning an early goal-line drop-out, while winger Tom Lineham went close but was tackled into touch.
They opened the scoring in the twelfth minute when Kevin Brown sold a dummy to cross the line. Harvey Livett’s attempted conversion hit the post high and appeared to rebound for a goal, but the touch judges ruled no goal, which fortunately would not prove to be crucial to the result.
Roberts won two more goal-line drop-outs with astute kicks, before the Wolves scored two more tries in the final ten minutes of the half, from a Ben Murdoch-Masila charge and a superb try on the right wing just before the interval by Josh Charnley, with Livett converting both tries.
In the second half Wigan tried valiantly to come back into the game, but the Wolves showed great defensive steel and eventually went further ahead with Bryson Goodwin penalty before substitute Dec Patton scored a thrilling try from a move he instigated right on the final hooter, with Goodwin missing the final conversion attempt. But by then it didn’t matter.
Warrington: 1 Stefan Ratchford, 2 Tom Lineham, 3 Bryson Goodwin, 4 Ryan Atkins, 27 Josh Charnley, 6 Kevin Brown, 7 Tyrone Roberts, 8 Chris Hill, 9 Daryl Clark, 10 Mike Cooper, 20 Harvey Livett, 12 Jack Hughes, 34 Ben Westwood; Subs: 13 Ben Murdoch-Masila, 15 Declan Patton, 16 Sitaleki Akauola, 17 Joe Philbin
Tries: K Brown, Murdoch-Masila, Charnley, Patton; Goals: Livett 2, Goodwin; Field-goal: Roberts
Wigan: 1 Sam Tomkins, 2 Tom Davies, 14 John Bateman, 4 Oliver Gildart, 22 Liam Marshall, 6 George Williams, 7 Sam Powell, 8 Tony Clubb, 9 Thomas Leuluai, 10 Ben Flower, 19 Willie Isa, 12 Liam Farrell, 13 Sean O’Loughlin; Subs: 11 Joel Tomkins, 15 Ryan Sutton, 17 Taulima Tautai, 20 Morgan Escaré
A full report, photos and analysis from today’s game will feature in Monday’s edition of League Express
