Matt Peet was proud of his Wigan Warriors side’s win over Hull FC, but he’s calling on the sport’s decision makers to make games more fun to watch. The Cherry and Whites were the better team in East Yorkshire as they thumped a Hull side who proved to be their own worst enemies at times, with errors on both sides of the ball proving costly.
Bevan French and Junior Nsemba both scored braces on the day, while Jai Field, Jake Wardle and Abbas Miski got over to give Wigan the 36-12 win they ultimately deserved. However, the game was just the latest to run for over two hours, with video refereeing calls significantly slowing down the action.
The longest break in play came at the start of the second half as Abbas Miski somehow managed to get the ball down in the corner despite the attention of three Hull defenders. The decision took around five minutes to make, with referee Jack Smith initially sending his on field decision of no try up to Ben Thaler.
A host of other stoppages came throughout the contest with both sides making use of the captain’s challenge, while Smith sent most try calls upstairs, too, and while Peet was the victorious head coach, he still made the point such delays are hugely frustrating.
“It’s just ugly isn’t it at the moment, put the telly on to watch a game, not just our games,” Peet said when asked about the video referee decisions.
“I don’t know who’s decision is to make these changes but we have to make this sport more fun to watch at the moment. We’re talking about marketing the game but at the moment it’s just stop the things that are going to put people off it.”
Matt Peet’s Wigan Warriors pride
On the game itself, Peet expressed his delight as Wigan moved back to within two points of the league leaders.
“I’m proud of the lads, no doubt,” he said. “They’re a team who throw a lot at you and challenge you. They have some quality and particularly some of the stuff we did defensively we were very connected and we had intelligence to our defence against some great attacking shape.
“I think Sean O’Loughlin has done a great job this week and that’s because the players buy into him and he’s coached a great week.”
The Warriors were boosted by the returns of Adam Keighran and Luke Thompson from injury this week, with the former returning from a knee injury after a six week lay-off and Peet believes his presence was felt.
“It was always an injury we felt could be guided by how he felt when he took his brace off and he’s been fantastic, which is big in a game like that,” the head coach added. “Hull have got some big bodies and smart players and that bit of seniority proved important.”
⏱ 𝙁𝙐𝙇𝙇 𝙏𝙄𝙈𝙀 @procareltd
An impressive Wigan Warriors performance to take the two points! 👊#WWRL #SLHULWIG pic.twitter.com/xnLDLcB63q
— Wigan Warriors 🍒⚪️ (@WiganWarriorsRL) April 27, 2025
Eric T Cat
April 27, 2025 at 7:22 pm
It struck me the video referee was looking to find ways to justify every decision in favour of Wigan, bordering on blatant! I’m a Rovers fan and thought FC were on the receiving end of dubious decisions. It’s getting out of hand, I’d be tempted to do away with it unless there are better and more camera angles, and a single standardised bunker that makes the decisions like in the NRL, but those video referees are drawn from retured referees and ex-players.
dave bould
April 28, 2025 at 8:18 am
Thaler always takes longer giving tries to Wigan opposition. Watch him run video SLOWER for opposition teams than Wigan to see if players hand is minutely off the ball then gives no try. NEVER DOES he slow video down as far as that when a Wigan player scores a dubious try.
Steveeeee
April 27, 2025 at 10:18 pm
The whole thing is a farce, should be 60 seconds max and then move on, stop the try no try nonsense. On another note Wigan do get away with a lot more niggle and laying on than other teams. Anyone else noticed the use of legs wrapping up other players, they really have mastered the dark arts