AN ABYSMAL match but a precious third victory of the season for Wigan Warriors, although with their fellow two relegation candidates winning earlier, the six-point deficit that they must claw back at the bottom of the engage Super League in 11 games — seven of them at home — was no different from the start of the day.
Wigan remain confident that they can dig themselves clear without resort to the reports of a back-door deal to preserve their place among the elite, which were dismissed by Dave Whelan, the club’s owner. “If we finish bottom, we’ll deserve to go down,” Whelan, who must have been delighted with the fighting spirit shown last night, said.
Kris Radlinski’s emergence from retirement was the key to Wigan’s defensive rearguard in reversing an opening-day loss to the Catalans. In a tense atmosphere, Bryan Fletcher spilt an early pass and Chris Beattie crashed over for the Dragons after 47 seconds, but Michael Dobson’s six place kicks from six was the pivotal contribution.
Mick Higham was a steadying influence at hooker in claiming Wigan’s first try. Bruno Verges profited for Catalans from Pat Richards’s failure to clear Sean Rudder’s grubber-kick, in reply to Nathan McAvoy seizing on Dobson’s kick, before the first of Dobson’s three penalty goals either side of the interval.
Dobson ignored instructions to take a fourth, a gamble that did not pay off, but Higham’s subsequent inside pass for the unstoppable Fletcher gave Wigan an eventual 12-point cushion. The Warriors, typically, were hanging on as John Wilson outpaced their cover late on, but there is now some sort of platform to build on.
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SCORERS: Wigan Warriors: Tries: Higham, McAvoy, Fletcher. Goals: Dobson 6. Catalans Dragons: Tries: Beattie, Verges, Wilson. Goals: Jones 2, Frayssinous.
WIGAN WARRIORS: C Ashton; P Richards, K Radlinski, N McAvoy, B Dallas; D Orr, M Dobson; S Logan, M Higham, B Fletcher, G Hock, D Tickle, S O’Loughlin. Substitutes: I Paleaaesina, J Seuseu, W Godwin, D Hill.
CATALANS DRAGONS: R Guigue; J Murphy, J Wilson, S Rudder, B Verges; Y Khattabi, S Jones; C Beattie, J Rinaldi, A Fellous, I Hindmarsh, J Fakir, J Guisset. Substitutes: A Chan, G Mounis, L Frayssinous, R Casty.
Referee: S Ganson.