Shaun Wane: Wigan deserved to beat Super League leaders Leeds
Last Updated: 10/07/15 9:38am
Wigan coach Shaun Wane felt his side deserved to beat Super League leaders Leeds despite leaving it late to do so.
Matty Smith kicked a last-minute penalty to earn his side a 26-24 after it look as though the Rhinos had done enough to have earned a share of the spoils when skipper Kevin Sinfield converted Rob Burrow's 77th-minute try to tie the scores for a third time.
But the visitors were penalised for obstruction with seconds running out and Smith kept his cool to land his fifth goal from as many attempts to help Wigan return to winning ways following their surprise defeat at Warrington.
"I thought we deserved to win," Wane said. "We bombed two dead-set tries in the second half with poor skill but overall I'm happy with the win.
"It's been a real tough week and it was nice to get a win against the best team in the competition.
"Credit to them, when they go into offload mode, they're a fantastic team. They're the best team in the competition but we were much improved."
Wigan scored tries through veteran full-back Matty Bowen, skipper Sean O'Loughlin, Josh Charnley and Liam Farrell as they cut Leeds' lead to just two points with two rounds left of the regular season.
Leeds opened the scoring with Paul Aiton's 10th-minute try and Brad Singleton and Ash Handley also touched down in a thrilling see-saw encounter but they were denied what would have been a candidate for try of the season when Danny McGuire finished off a bewildering handling move only to see the score ruled out through obstruction.
"I thought that was a try," Leeds coach Brian McDermott said. "The build-up was absolutely sensational and had it been allowed, we'd have scored the best try ever.
"It was really disappointing that try was not awarded but that's not the reason we lost.
"In the first half Wigan had a fair amount of momentum and ultimately that was where it was won and lost.
"I didn't think we defended well enough throughout the course of the game to win.
"There's a lot of disappointed players, a lot who feel they were some really harsh calls in the second half. But you have to deal with those.
"I've got no complaints with the loss. I thought Wigan over the course of the game played better than we did."