Warriors boss hails match-winning hero Sam Tomkins

The full-back's 77th-minute strike - from 35m out and on an angle - put them ahead for the first time and proved enough to claim a 9-8 victory.

Tomkins had played a starring role in a fightback six days earlier at Catalans, the club he is widely expected to join for next season.

Wigan trailed 8-0 heading into the final stages and coach Shaun Wane said: "Sam was great last week and he was great today.

“We played tough and showed some good character. I could sense we gripped the game a bit.

“I was thrilled in the end to get the win, but disappointed in the manner - there were too many errors.

“It says a lot about our character that we can be so much off and still come away with the two points from a tough place."

The win cut the gap on leaders to two points ahead of St Helens' clash with Wakefield on Sunday.

Wane had praised Brian McDermott in the build-up, saying the Leeds coach "deserved raps" - only for his Leeds counterpart to question whether the Warriors boss had tried to influence referees with comments about the obstruction rule.

“Every time I give Leeds praise it gets thrown back in my face but they are a very good team and tough to bear," added Wane.

The thrilling finish contrasted sharply with the majority of the match, which failed to live up to past epics between these two sides.

"It was a very boring game - error-ridden and not much from both teams on attack," said McDermott.

“It was a greasy ball and I don’t know whether that was much to do with it, but the quality of the game wasn’t great.

“At 8-0 up we put our head up our backsides and didn’t pull it out.

“We defended crazy and Wigan were running the ball 70, 80 metres per set when previously it hd been 30, 40 metres.

“Credit to Wigan they didn’t go away - they kept jabbing and trying to land a punch.

“The drop goal form Sammy in those conditions was world class, credit to him."