Wane: That was out best win of the year

Shaun Wane ranked Wigan's 38-10 victory over in-form Warrington as their best of the season before warning the rest of Super League that they have yet to hit their straps.
Liam Marshall beats ex-Warrior Josh Charnley to the ballLiam Marshall beats ex-Warrior Josh Charnley to the ball
Liam Marshall beats ex-Warrior Josh Charnley to the ball

The Wolves went into the Magic Weekend encounter at St James’ Park as the competition’s form side but saw their 10-game winning run ended by the ruthless Warriors.

Wigan took a 16-10 lead into half-time and upped their intensity after the break to romp to an eighth straight success.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“That’s our best win this year,” said Wane, who revealed golfer and Wigan fan Lee Westwood congratulated his team in the dressing room after the game.

“But it’s very hard for me to be satisfied. I want to be happy with it but there’s still lots of areas we need to improve on. I always dwell towards them.

“We’ve beaten a fantastic team there, Warrington are a class team and well coached. We’ll be meeting a different team in two weeks’ time (in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals), I’ve got no question about that.

“But I’m going to enjoy today. It was an outstanding win.”

Sam Tomkins scored a try and seven goals to finish with a personal haul of 18 points at the end of a week when his move to Catalans Dragons was confirmed.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Wane insisted Tomkins’ impending departure could be a positive for Wigan when it comes to the business end of the season.

“When I look at players and you look at skill, speed, toughness and all that, the one thing they have to have for me is competitive spirit and that’s what Sam’s got in abundance,” Wane added.

“The fact he’s leaving means he’ll be even more motivated to try win something at the end of this year. He showed that competitive spirit again today.”

Warrington were in the game after Stefan Ratchford added to Harvey Livett’s sixth try in four matches just before the break but went scoreless in a frustrating second half thanks to Wigan’s superb scrambling defence.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Head coach Steve Price said: “We’d been playing some really good football and were turning things around but today we didn’t come to the races. It was hugely disappointing.

“Full credit to Wigan. I thought they played some really good football.

“We’re a much better footy team than that, I know that. That’s not Warrington Wolves out there today.

“We’ll dust ourselves off and have a lot of hard work to do ahead of an important game against Hull next week.”