Report: Warrington 25-12 Wigan

What Grand Final? Warrington produced a terrific performance at the Halliwell Jones to defeat arch-rivals Wigan by a scoreline of 25-12, inflicting a fourth consecutive defeat on the Warriors. Here is my report from the night...


There was one change to the Wire 17, with Ryan Atkins replacing the injured Bryson Goodwin at centre. Ben Westwood came into the starting 13, taking the place of Lama Tasi, who dropped to the interchange bench. The rest of the side was unchanged, meaning that my desired Sweet 17 was only one away from being spot on, though I did have exactly the same starting team. This meant that Ben Currie started his second game in a row.

The atmosphere was absolutely incredible from the first minute, by some distance the loudest I've heard the HJ in years, a tone which was set from before kick-off. This week's pre-match entertainment was just as impressive as last week's Human Video Board, with the players emerging from the tunnel to a brilliant cover of Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood' - the tagline that has been used to promote this game all week - and a rousing fireworks display. My personal favourite though was the use of Muse's 'Uprising': They will stop degrading us. They will not control us. We will be victorious. 

Wire made a positive start to the game and opened the scoring after just seven minutes when a lovely move saw Blake Austin find Jake Mamo out wide, who shifted past Dan Sarginson before diving over the line to send the home crowd into raptures. Ratchford missed the conversion but would soon make up for this. 19 minutes later, Austin was at it again with a delightful dummied ball to Currie, with the second rower rapidly breaking through to the line, but he was prevented from scoring on the line by an unbelievable tackle from Wigan's Zak Hardaker. Nine minutes before the break, Warrington took a quick penalty with Daryl Clark playing the ball to Currie, before the 24-year-old played a pacy pass to Ratchford, who raced clear and crossed the line to score his third try of the season. The full back kicked the conversion and added another two points just before half time from a penalty, meaning Steve Price's team had a 12-0 lead after forty minutes.

Wigan would've been expected to come back into the game in the second half, but it was actually the home side who continued their ascendancy in the opening exchanges, and there was another try five minutes in. A high kick into the corner by Austin on the fifth tackle left Wigan utility back Morgan Escare stranded, and Josh Charnley was on hand to score acrobatically in the corner against his former club. Ratchford added the extras to extend Wire's lead to 18-0 before a game-changing moment. A disgracefully high tackle on Austin from Dan Sarginson saw the Wigan centre sin-binned and Austin left the field with a head injury. The loss of the stand-off was a key moment in a game which Warrington suddenly lost some control of, and Adrian Lam's side were suddenly back in it when some shocking defence from Ryan Atkins allowed Tom Davies to score his first Wigan try, before Willie Isa evaded another Atkins challenge two minutes later to cross the whitewash. Hardaker converted both tries meaning Wire had a six point lead with 17 minutes to go. 

Nerves were slightly settled a few minutes later when a Declan Patton drop-goal (yes, we actually scored a drop-goal) increased the lead to 19-12 and crucially meant Wigan needed two scores. Blake Austin miraculously returned to the field for the final stages and an air of control returned with the halfback. With seven minutes left, Toby King was tackled in the in-goal area which resulted in a mass brawl. The referee Ben Thaler took his time to deal with the various issues, and sent Isa and Patton to the sin-bin for their roles in the melee, while Ben Westwood was given a straight red card for a headbutt. Despite the drama, Warrington saw the game out well and managed to extend the winning margin in the last minute with a try from Jack Hughes, who forced his way over to score for the second game in a row, after a disguised pass from Daryl Clark. Ratchford once again kicked the conversion and the home crowd celebrated a massive win which makes it five from six at the start of the season after a sensational and hard-fought victory over the bitterest of rivals.

All in all, an extremely satisfying win. We showed that we are a lot better than Wigan, with a lot of high-quality technical play, but also exemplified real character and determination to see the game out when it got difficult. We really cut down on the number of penalties conceded too, which had been a real issue until this game. Barring the brawl at the end, which was ridiculous from Westwood and slightly silly from Patton and Mamo, the discipline was superb. Price said in the build-up to this match that a lot of players were still hurting from the Grand Final defeat and that showed with the desire and energy in the performance. I think we showed our title credentials in this game - a lot of classy play which could blow teams apart, coupled with a desire and ability to do the dirty work necessary to see big games out. There was a real belief in the crowd too - a phenomenal atmosphere which was no doubt helped by the promotion of the game in the days building up to it, and the pre-match entertainment. The celebrations for Hughes' try late on felt big. It felt like a big moment. Maybe this really is our year?

Next up is a trip to Wakefield on Thursday 21st. Wakey have had a largely good season, with excellent wins away at Hull FC and Leeds recently, as well as a home win over Catalans, though they have been defeated by London and Hull KR, and suffered a narrow defeat to St Helens too. A tough away assignment but one which Wire should go into full of confidence after two wins in the last two weeks over a title rival in Castleford and a brutal win over the defending champions.

Make sure to check the blog for my rankings article from this match, where I will rate the whole squad's performance, and then visit again through the week for a Sweet 17 article, where I'll select the team I would like to play the Wakefield fixture.

It's always our year.

Daniel (@aloosewire)