Wigan Warriors and St Helens are two of the biggest clubs in the entire sport of rugby league and as chance would have it the two find themselves as neighbours in what is the original derby.
The two early season favourites for the Super League title in 2024 as the two sides who have won the last six Super League titles between them both have star studded squads and many have a meeting between the two as the likely Grand Final.
Though the two may eventually battle for Super League glory, on Good Friday the traditional Easter bragging rights were up for grabs as the two sides met in front of a sell out crowd.
St Helens welcomed back both Tommy Makinson and Lewis Dodd from injury.
Wigan Warriors though were struck with a key blow after 28 minutes when Tyler Dupree was sin binned for leading with the elbow but crucially he wasn’t shown a red card.
This is because it was deemed by the officials that Dupree had made initial contact with the chest of Matty Lees before riding up.
Chris Kendall explains why Wigan Warriors star avoided red card
Credit: Imago Images
This saw him sin binned and not red carded. Chris Kendall could be heard explaining on Sky Sports: “In our opinion you have led with the forearm but have made contact with the chest first and ridden up into the head which is what brings it down from a red to a yellow.”
Making matters worse for the Wigan Warriors, Luke Thompson went off the field with a knock shortly after this in a blow for the Warriors.
They trailed early on to a Mark Percival penalty but it could have been worse for the Warriors when they stood up to some real stern questions from the St Helens attack such as when Lewis Dodd squeezed through from an Alex Walmsley offload but was denied a try by a scrambling Jai Field cover tackle.
Wigan wanted Dodd sin binned later in the half after an altercation between the same two players. Field was accidentally tripped by Dodd and in the view of Chris Kendall it was accidental with Dodd having a planted foot meaning no card was shown.
