Wigan Warriors have produced one of the biggest wins of the Super League season to date after a 72-20 massacre of York Knights.
Matt Peet’s men produced a hugely different result to that of the reverse fixture back in March, which Wigan won by just one point.
The Warriors were ruthless for 60 minutes, before dropping off in the final 20 when the game was won.
Hat-tricks came from Jai Field and Noah Hodkinson, whilst Jake Wardle scored two.
Sam Eseh’, Adam Keighran, Junior Nsemba, Bevan French and Jack Farrimond added the rest of the scores, but Peet will be reeling from the final quarter of the game, where Wigan couldn’t score any more points and conceded four tries late on.
Cody Hunter bagged two, whilst Scott Galeano and Liam Harris also dotted down for what would be consolation scores, but they were a lot more than that to the York faithful.
York Knights v Wigan Warriors talking points
Wigan’s ruthless hour does the job:
A clinical 60 minutes of rugby saw the Warriors score 13 tries and kick 10 goals to go level with Warrington in racking up the biggest score by one team in Super League this season.
Everything they touched turned to gold, and after 15 minutes they led 22-0. They took a 44-0 lead into the break, before five more tries saw them hit the 72.
However, a poor showing in the final quarter allowed York to run in four tries, meaning that the second half scoreline was 28-20 Wigan, something you would never have expected to occur after the first 40.
Applegarth’s Knightmare:
It would be a disappointment from the opening seconds, with Liam Harris’ kick-off going out on the full. York had to wait three and a half minutes before even touching the ball, by which time Wigan had already scored.
In the opening 16 minutes, the Knights had had just two sets in possession, meaning they had to do plenty of defending in the opening part of the game. In the scorching sun, that heavily fatigued the home side, and it allowed Wigan to just steamroll up the field for the majority of the game.
Their first good-ball opportunity came after 23 minutes. They started to build pressure on the Wigan line, but the final kick went straight to Jack Farrimond, who offloaded to Jai Field. The full-back then raced almost all the way, before producing an excellent cross-field kick to Noah Hodkinson for his second try to take the score to 28-0.
Too many defensive misreads and a lack of physicality allowed Wigan to score some easy tries, leaving boss Applegarth with some serious things to work on ahead of a trip to Castleford next week.
They did up their efforts in the final quarter, with those four tries giving their fans something more than anything else.
Wigan reduce the gap:
Matt Peet and Wigan will be pleased to take the two points, but they will be even happier with the huge chunk of points difference they were able to claw back from such a high-scoring win.
With Hull KR’s 14-point win over Leigh last night, a Wigan win would have drawn them level on points in third. However, the Robins had a 153 better points difference than Wigan, with that largely being down to the 62-4 KR win when they opted to use an academy side before Wembley.
The 52-point winning margin this afternoon makes that gap a lot closer, and today’s result could be pivotal given how close the table is. The final standings could well come down to points difference.
Double delight:
Not only did Wigan’s men’s side emerge as victors in York, but their women’s side also racked up a comfortable victory over York Valkyrie.
Denis Betts’ side continued their unbeaten run going after a 32-12 victory. Much like the men’s game, it was a dominant first half from the Warriors before a more equal second 40 made it closer contest than first thought.
