Two Wigan Warriors players have assessed their sides victory over Wakefield Trinity this afternoon, as the Warriors claimed a 26-22 win.
Knocking Trinity out of the Challenge Cup, Patrick Mago and Junior Nsemba both put in solid performances in the Wigan pack to send Daryl Powell’s side out of the competition.
Mago scored for one of Wigan’s five tries in the game, whilst a brilliant cut-out pass from the Australian set up Zach Eckersley’s score in the second half.
The off-contract prop was named Player of the Match by the BBC, and he gave his thoughts in an interview with pundit and former player, Kevin Brown, at full-time
“I’m very happy about that,” the 31-year-old said. “We knew Wakefield were going to be strong today, and I thought we needed to be on our A-game to come out and get the win today. All the boys did that and dug deep and got that win.
Nsemba, meanwhile, was a major doubt in this game having picked up an ankle injury last time out.
He spoke on what he had to do in order to make the matchday 17, and how he is holding up after an 80-minute performance.
“Yeah, good. Obviously, I’ve got my recovery done. The physios did what they had to with me through the week. I’ve been icing and been recovering, so I’m happy that I played today.
“It’s obviously a great game to play. Wakefield were an amazing side.”
With Wigan leading by four points with just minutes to go, Trinity looked to find a last-gasp try, and a hopeful offload from Cam Scott found it’s way into the arms of the England international,. It was at that moment he knew his side had won.
“Last play of the game, we all had to put our bodies on the line, didn’t we?” Nsemba explained. “Wakefield were attacking real well, but obviously, last minute you have to put everything that you’ve got.”
After 15 minutes the game looked very different with Wakefield holding a 12-0 lead over the 21-time Challenge Cup champions.
After two defeats in a row and another poor start, it would have been easy for Wigan to fold, but both players spoke on how well they thought the side did to not only come back and level the scores but to then go on and claim the victory.
“We always believed in ourselves to come back from that [12-0 down],” Mago said. “I think all the boys knew that if we just dug deep, we would come away with the win. I thought we did that well.”
Nesmba added: “It was real tough. Obviously, we didn’t help ourselves at the start of the game. Defending for like 15 minutes straight.
“We had to find a way. Harry controlled the game. So did Jack [Farrimond] and Jai [Field], the leaders.
“So, we just listened to them. And as I said, it was tough, but the fans made it 100 times easier.”
