Why this moment may prove a turning point in Wigan Warriors' season

The Warriors trailed 8-6 in their Nou Camp showdown with Catalans when, early in the second-half, Liam Marshall blazed over in the right corner.

But the winger was in touch and the video referee deemed it was no try – and Catalans then took complete control with three scores in seven minutes as they powered to a 33-16 win.

The following week, Wigan allowed a refereeing call against Taulima Tautai, which they felt was harsh, changed the course of the game as they went down to Warrington at the Magic Weekend.

During their extra time off last week – owing to their exit from the Challenge Cup – they reflected on their season so far, and which areas they need to urgently address.

And from their mid-season review came a desire to stop flashpoints becoming turning points. In short, stop players’ heads from dropping.

Assistant coach John Winder revealed: “We’ve had time to reassess and look at where we are with our performances.

“We’ve talked about dealing with adversity and moments in the game, because there have been key moments in games we’ve not manged well. The Catalans game is a perfect example.

“If Liam Marshall scores in the corner, you speak to a lot of people and they probably see (the outcome of) that game differently.

“But we have to look at it like, ‘We broke them, we didn’t get the result. But what’s our next set?’

“If you look at what happened, we gave a penalty away in the next set and they went and scored, and it’s not good enough.

“When a key moment goes against us, what does our next set look like? How do we get back into the game?

“It’s something we’ve spoken about and something we want to address.”

Wigan are in ninth but they have a block of five fixtures against sides in the bottom-half of the table – starting with today's game at Hull KR. A run of wins could propel them up the ladder.

But Winder, who took the mid-week media duties when Adrian Lam was in Australia for a family bereavement, insists they are not taking anything for granted.

“The one thing I’ve learned is there are no easy games and as soon as you star thinking, ‘We should get two points there’, you wake up on Monday morning and you’ve lost,” he said.

“It’s about steady, incremental improvements in our performances.

“We feel there’s an opportunity to build some momentum because ultimately we want to be in the top-five.

“We understand if our performances change the results will take care of themselves."