REPORT: Wakefield Trinity 22 Wigan Warriors 46

Matty Peet's men were always in charge at the Be Well Support Stadium, with the home side struggling to get to grips with the footwork of two-try Bevan French and Harry Smith orchestrating play from half-back.

Wigan came flying out of the traps and were 18 points to the good inside 15 minutes.

First, an admittedly forward-looking pass from French allowed Kai Pearce-Paul to crash over.

And only superb Trinity cover defence collared Smith a yard short after Liam Marshall had intelligently kicked inside.

The respite was only temporary, however, as a bullet pass from Pearce-Paul saw Marshall cross for his customary try.

And it looked a long way back for Wakefield when Liam Farrell broke through and stepped inside the full-back, with Smith adding all three goals.

Credit to the hosts, though, and tries from Max Jowitt and Jay Pitts - both goaled by Mason Lino - reduced the arrears to six points by the half-hour mark.

Mesmerising footwork from French - with the Australian jinking past half-a-dozen would-be tacklers before planting the ball down - made it 24-12.

And Trinity's task was made doubly difficult three minutes before half-time when Lino was sin-binned for questioning a Wigan penalty award.

The visitors reaped their own punishment when, from the very next set, quick hands out right saw Abbas Miski dive over in the corner.

Jai Field put Miski over four minutes into the second period to edge the score out to 34-12.

And with Lino preparing to come back onto the field, French followed up his own kick to dive over for another converted touchdown.

It looked at this point like the floodgates would open but, restored to a full complement, Trinity managed to stem the bleeding.

And back-to-back scores from Kyle Evans and Jowitt just after the hour mark to make it 40-22.

French looked like he'd completed his hat-trick inside the last 10 minutes, only for the final ball from Field to be ruled forward.

But Wigan did have the last word, with Pearce-Paul bookmarking the tryscoring with his second of the afternoon.