Hard-fought win for Wigan

A man-of-the-match performance from Gareth Hock helped Wigan take a hard-fought 38-30 victory over Wakefield at Belle Vue.

After falling 6-0 and 12-6 behind early on, the Warriors went 14-12 up at the interval, with stand-in captain Trent Barrett creating three second-half tries as Wigan fended off a late Wildcats resurgence to take the points.

Danny Brough was instrumental for the home side but, with Great Britain coach Tony Smith looking on, it was the forward forays of Hock, who also scored Wigan's fifth try, which caught the eye.

Wakefield made the stronger start and, after a Brough try had been disallowed for offside, the home took the lead after five minutes through winger Damien Blanch.

The Yorkshire side had been gifted good field position after Pat Richards failed to find touch with a penalty and, although the Australian winger's attempt to make up for the error saw him knocking Brough's kick from the clutches of Ryan Atkins, Blanch then pounced for an easy score.

Brough added the extras, but Wigan were back in it 10 minutes later when scrum-half Thomas Leuluai stepped inside the cover to touch down by the posts, with Richards then converting to level at 6-6.

Wigan were making unforced errors as well as conceding penalties and, after Brough hit the post with a penalty attempt, he then engineered his side's second try after 26 minutes with another lovely kick through.

The ball had looked to be dead before Scott Grix palmed it backwards towards Jay Pitts, who only had to fall over the line.

Brough converted for 12-6, but the Wildcats allowed the resulting kick-off to go dead at the expense of a drop-out, with Andy Coley punishing them almost immediately by barging over for Wigan's second try.

Richards converted for 12-12, and he edged the Warriors ahead for the first time a couple of minutes before half-time after Danny Sculthorpe was penalised for a high tackle on former Wigan team-mate Hock.

Fortunate

Perhaps fortunate to be ahead at the break, Wigan nevertheless surrendered their lead eight minutes into the second period when, after a 40-20 from Brough, centre Tony Martin crashed through Leuluai's attempted defence to score in the corner.

Brough then converted from the touchline to make it 18-14 to Wakefield.

The Warriors responded three minutes later, however, with a long ball from Barrett allowing Liam Colbon to score in the corner.

Richards narrowly failed to convert, but he made amends in the 55th minute by following up a Barrett kick and stealing the ball out of the clutches of another former Warrior, winger Sean Gleeson.

The conversion proving a formality, another penalty from Richards soon afterwards extended Wigan's lead to 26-18.

Hock then ran a superb angle off Barrett to score under the posts for another converted try just after the hour to make it 32-18.

The home side pulled a couple of tries back in the last seven minutes through Matt Blaymire and Blanch again, both converted by Brough, but Harrison Hansen's try on the hooter sealed it for Wigan.