Rugby

REPORT

The Wigan Warriors warmed up for their Wembley appearance in sparkling fashion as they cruised to an 11th successive win in the engage Super League with a 60 points to 12 victory over the Bradford Bulls at the DW Stadium, Wigan. 

Sam Tompkins mesmerised the Bradford defence with his trademark runs and scored two of his side’s 12 tries as the Super League champions moved three points clear of the Warrington Wolves while removing the Bulls’ mathematical chances of making the play-offs.

Wigan’s victory, which included two length-of-the-field tries, would have been even more emphatic but for an off day by goalkicker Pat Richards, who succeeded with just six of his 12 attempts but made amends with a hat-trick of tries.

Warriors coach Michael Maguire could afford to rest Andy Coley, Brett Finch and Lee Mossop ahead of next Saturday’s Carnegie Challenge Cup final against Leeds Rhinos and he gave Ireland prop Eamon O’Carroll his first appearance for 15 months after being sidelined with a career-threatening sternum injury.

It was all Wigan in the first quarter, with Sam Tomkins looking at his best.

He was denied an early try by a crunching tackle from Bradford winger Gareth Raynor but produced a break out of defence to set up the position for centre George Carmont to force his way over from dummy half for the first of his two tries.

Skipper Sean O’Loughlin then sent second rower Ryan Hoffman romping through a gaping hole in the visitors’ defence with a pinpoint pass and an apparent knock on by winger Patrick Ah Van within the in-goal area gifted Carmont his second try.

A 14-0 lead after 19 minutes was nothing less than the warriors deserved and they added a fourth try before half-time when Tomkins got Carmont in sight of the line and he unselfishly offloaded to Richards.

But Richards was able to add only one conversion and the Bulls grabbed themselves a lifeline with a couple of converted tries by replacement forwards Craig Kopczak and John Bateman from kicks.

The 18-year-old Bateman profited from a sublime knock-back by centre Paul Sykes to score his first try for the club on only his third senior appearance.

It was, however, only a minor setback for the Warriors, who wrapped up the win with three further tries in the first 12 minutes of the second half, largely due to the efforts of Tomkins.

The full-back took Paul Deacon’s pass to slip effortlessly between two flat-footed defenders for his 25th Super League try of the season before combining with replacement centre Darrell Goulding to get right winger Josh Charnley over.

There was a worrying moment for the home side when Tomkins was deemed to have been tackled around the neck by Sykes, who was put on report by referee Ben Thaler, but within the next set he raced through the defence to send O’Loughlin over for a try.

Richards grabbed his second, latching onto Deacon’s high kick to the corner, but was still struggling with his goalkicking as he put a fifth conversion attempt wide of the target.

The game’s highlight came on 64 minutes when Bradford passing broke down 10 metres from the Wigan line and Tomkins gathered the loose ball to sprint almost the full length of the pitch to register his second try.

As Bradford’s defence wilted, second rower Harrison Hansen crashed through it for a try before Tomkins got Charnley racing 90 metres for his second try and Richards completed the rout with his hat-trick.