Wigan Warriors flirted with danger against lowly opponents for a second time in eight days before emerging winners of another try-fest yesterday.
Having lost 37-36 to Widnes Vikings in the upset of the season, their defence leaked another 30 points to a London Broncos side who demonstrated ample attacking flair. London’s dilemma was a defensive haemorrhage more pronounced than that of Wigan in a madcap match — “a great game of tick and pass,” said Shaun Wane, Wigan’s exasperated coach — of a dozen tries and a multitude of missed tackles.
Whenever London moved the ball wide at pace, third-placed Wigan found themselves stretched. An 18-6 advantage did not flatter the Broncos after 30 minutes, before the home side summoned up a seven-minute purple patch to lead 24-18 at the break. The visiting team continued to chip away, but without the same conviction.
If Wigan failed to stiffen the sinews on their line, they stretched their legs in attack, although Wane remained far from happy. “Conceding 30 points isn’t acceptable, no disrespect to London. We’ve high standards and will have to put a lot of hard work in for the visit of Warrington on Friday,” he said.
Having achieved their first win against Castleford Tigers last week, Rob Powell was content with his side’s continuing progress. “To score as many points as we did away from home suggests we’re doing a lot right, but you can’t concede that many tries and hope to win,” the Broncos coach said.
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Brett Finch led the way with two of Wigan’s seven tries, all converted by Pat Richards, leaving the wing two points short of the 2,000 mark for Wigan, whose victory was confirmed by Sam Tomkins’s cheeky tap penalty 80 metres out, which completely outfoxed London.
To their credit, though, they never stopped battling as Michael Witt claimed his second try, which he also converted in an 18-point haul. Finch responded to Witt’s opening try on the left, before the Broncos surged ahead through Michael Robertson’s dive at the corner and Dan Sarginson, a sparkling product of the club’s academy, standing up Josh Charnley and leaving Tomkins clutching at his shirt-tails.
Gareth Hock’s strong-arm response galvanised Wigan, for whom Darrell Goulding and George Carmont, on his return from a broken thumb, added further tries. Hock’s superb offload to Richards failed to kill off London, who responded with Chris Melling supporting Craig Gower down the middle, before Finch contributed a second try and Tomkins his spectacular 63rd-minute effort.
Scorers: Wigan Warriors: Tries: Finch 2, Hock, Goulding, Carmont, Richards, Tomkins. Goals: Richards 7. London Broncos: Tries: Witt 2, Robertson, Sarginson, Melling. Goals: Witt 5.
Wigan Warriors: S Tomkins; J Charnley, D Goulding, G Carmont, P Richards; B Finch, T Leuluai; P Prescott, M McIlorum, E Lauaki, H Hansen, G Hock, S O’Loughlin. Interchange: C Tuson, L Farrell, J Lima, B Flower.
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London Broncos: L Dorn; M Robertson, D Howell, D Sarginson, J O’Callaghan; M Witt, G Gower; A Kaufusi, C Randall, T Clubb, M Cook, J Golden, C Bailey. Interchange: M Bryant, J Rinaldi, K Temata, C Melling.
Referee: J Child.