Warrington were at their ruthless best as they beat Wigan 17-6 on Thursday night
Last Updated: 06/07/15 1:13pm
Warrington showed their aggressive side as they produced a ruthless performance to beat Wigan 17-6 at Halliwell Jones Stadium on Thursday night.
Richie Myler opened up the scoring for Warrington with a marvelous bit of footballing skill with Ryan Atkins and Gareth O'Brien also going over the whitewash.
Dom Manfredi went over for Wigan but there was little to celebrate for Shaun Wane's men who were pummeled from pillar to post and made far too many mistakes against the unrelenting Wolves.
The Wolves were full of aggression from the start but they were also indebted to a touch of genius from Myler – who was first to his own kick through the Wigan defence, fly-hacked the ball into the air and re-gathered in one move to touch down with 12 minutes on the clock.
Wigan tried to play the game at a fast pace but without getting the fundamentals right and the result was a total lack of cohesion.
They missed one glorious try scoring opportunity created by a defensive blunder from their hosts when stand-off George Williams pounced on a loose ball and substitute forward Taulima Tautai got prop Lee Mossop charging for the line, only for Ryan Atkins to get his body under the ball.
Winger Joe Burgess was then denied at the corner despite a brilliant effort to get the ball down and Warrington made the most of the let-offs to strengthen their grip by half-time.
Substitute George King demonstrated the greater desire of the home side with a devastating carry that delivered a blow to Tautai from which he never fully recovered.
Stand-off Gareth O'Brien nudged the Wolves further ahead with a drop goal before replacement hooker Brad Dwyer got Atkins racing through a gap for their second try – O'Brien's second conversion made it 13-0 at the break.
Too many errors
Wigan continued to come up with the errors in the second half, with returning centre Anthony Gelling losing the ball 30 metres out, as the Wolves laid siege to their line.
The lively Dwyer was obstructed as he chased his own kick on the last tackle and the ensuing penalty enabled Warrington to pile on the pressure.
Full-back Matty Bowen pulled off a try saving tackle to deny Dwyer but there was no stopping O'Brien on 51 minutes when the visitors' defence opened up invitingly.
O'Brien was off target with the kick for the first time but, at 17-0, it mattered little against a Wigan team intent on self-destruction.
Wigan right winger Dom Manfredi pulled a try back on 56 minutes when he outpaced Gene Ormsby to touch down Matty Smith's kick to the corner. Bowen landed the touchline conversion but it was too little, too late.
