Wigan Warriors v Warrington Wolves verdict as Sam Burgess’ side show grit but fall short in comeback

Wigan Warriors faced an injury-ravaged Warrington Wolves at Super League Magic Weekend and our verdict is now in.

Matt Peet’s side survived a scare as Warrington looked to launch a comeback but just fell short as they lost 22-20 in one of the games of Magic Weekend.

Jake Thewlis stepped up brilliantly on his return as he scored two tries but Wigan proved too strong with errors costing Warrington in the end.

Sam Burgess elected to play Oli Leyland and Stefan Ratchford in the halves in the absence of George Williams and Marc Sneyd. England international Danny Walker was also missing meaning that Sam Powell starts at hooker once again. Tyler Dupree returned in the only change for Wigan as they hoped to replicate their Round Three victory in Las Vegas.

Here’s our verdict on the game.

Wigan Warriors hang on to beat Warrington Wolves in thriller

FULL TIME: Wigan Warriors 22-20 Warrington Wolves ⌛

WHAT. A. GAME! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/x6QNRLjNwh

— Sky Sports Rugby League (@SkySportsRL) May 4, 2025

Warrington thought they’d taken the lead inside three minutes when Arron Lindop broke down the left but it was adjudged he knocked on in his attempt to offload it to full-back Matt Dufty.

It was Wigan’s full-back who opened the scoring with Field throwing a smart dummy before darting over and that lead was doubled very quickly when Jake Wardle broke through two tacklers before offloading to Bevan French who raced away.

Warrington had some complaints in that referee Chris Kendall got in the way of the rushing defender Jake Thewlis but there was no catching French anyway as he touched down under the sticks.

Warrington did hit back through Jake Thewlis as the winger latched onto Matt Dufty’s cut-out pass to make it 12-4. Shortly after Jai Field thought he’d scored a second but it was ruled out for obstruction in the build up. Matt Peet’s side saw another ruled out before half-time as the scores remained 12-4.

Wire started the second half fast though with the Thewlis brothers combining to set up Rodrick Tai and make it 12-10 but they couldn’t harness that momentum and they were soon pegged back when Abbas Miski touched down in the corner to restore the two score lead.

Wigan looked to kill the game off when Adam Keighran scooped the ball up well inside his own half and raced 70 metres to score, beating Wire full-back Matt Dufty who won’t want to watch the replay of his attempted tackle.

Warrington did hit back through Joe Philbin to make it 22-16 and they’d add another after Matt Dufty broke to tee up Josh Thewlis who set up younger brother Jake to score in the corner and make it 22-20 but Stefan Ratchford couldn’t nail the conversion as Wire fell short.

Good day for

Adam Keighran has come back into the side after his MCL injury and not missed a beat at all. The Australian centre scored what proved to be the game winner and created loads of shape on the right hand edge, where Wigan scored three of their four tries.

Bad day for

Sam Burgess’ side came so close but errors on the restart and then a short drop-out meant that Warrington simply shot themselves in the foot. They weren’t expected to win but having come so close, they’ll see this as two points dropped and a massive missed opportunity.

Star man

Jake Wardle regularly puts forward his case for being the best centre in Super League and today was another example of that. His break to set up Bevan French’s try was brilliant but his defensive efforts were even more impressive. Forcing Matt Dufty behind his goal-line late on was yet another brilliant effort.

Teams

Wigan Warriors XIII: Jai Field; Abbas Miski, Adam Keighran, Jake Wardle, Liam Marshall; Bevan French, Harry Smith; Luke Thompson, Brad O’Neill, Liam Byrne; Junior Nsemba, Liam Farrell, Kaide Ellis

Interchanges: Kruise Leeming, Sam Walters, Tyler Dupree, Harvie Hill

Warrington Wolves XIII: Matt Dufty; Josh Thewlis, Rodrick Tai, Arron Lindop, Jake Thewlis; Stefan Ratchford, Oli Leyland; Luke Yates, Sam Powell, Paul Vaughan; Adam Holroyd, Lachlan Fitzgibbon, Ben Currie

Interchanges: James Harrison, Joe Philbin, Zane Musgrove, Jordy Crowther

.@WiganWarriorsRL and @WarringtonRLFC take centre stage in Sunday’s second #MagicWKND fixture 🍿#SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/KgsESH9OsF

— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) May 4, 2025