Penrith Panthers reportedly “not happy” after Wigan Warriors defeat

For the second year in a row, a Super League club prevented Penrith Panthers from winning the World Club Challenge as this time Wigan Warriors claimed the title.

The Super League Champions followed in the footsteps of rivals St Helens who defeated Penrith in Australia 13-12 thanks to a drop goal in golden point extra time by Lewis Dodd.

Although a tight game at the DW Stadium, this game didn’t require golden point extra time as a Jake Wardle try proved the difference in a 16-12 win for the Warriors as a Jai Field try saver and an 80th minute disallowed try for Penrith saw Wigan claim the title.

However, the winning try for the Warriors was hugely controversial with many people believing Wardle was held short of the line.

There has been a lot of outrage down under and now NRL journalist the Mole of Wide World of Sports has said: “The Penrith Panthers are not happy” after fans called out what they believed was the “most blatantly gross cheating” they had seen.

Wigan Warriors star reflects on World Club Challenge win

This comes as Wigan star Bevan French reflected on the game, “It’s pretty crazy and surreal to be honest,” French said at full time to the Wigan Warriors club website.

He added: “Matt spoke about the connection that everyone has in the group and to go and win against a team like Penrith with their history and their calibre of players – three Premierships on the bounce, it means a lot to everyone in the Community of Wigan.

“This competition means a lot to the people of Wigan, they still talk about World Club Challenges from 30 years ago so it means a lot to us.”

Reflecting on the game, the stand-off said: “We know we have a squad here, our backline in particular, who can score points. We’ve been doing that for a few years but I think where we’ve changed over the last couple of years is priding ourselves on our defence. We always knew that our attack would be there as we have the individuals to be able to do that.

“We were clinical, we got down there a few times and were able to score but it was our defence that won the game tonight.”

Quizzed on his disallowed try, French spoke in jest: “The international rule is two feet behind the kicker, I think I only had one but the important thing is we won so that didn’t really matter.”