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24 August 2025, 17:16 BST
Betfred Super League
Wigan (18) 44
Tries: Keighran, French, Eckerskley 2, Nsemba, Field, Marshall, Walters Goals: Keighran, Smith 5
Wakefield (2) 2
Goal: Jowitt
Wigan Warriors went back to second in Super League with a comprehensive 44-2 victory against Wakefield Trinity at the Brick Community Stadium.
First-half tries from Adam Keighran, Bevan French and Zach Eckersley saw them race into a 16-point lead at the interval.
Scores from Junior Nsemba, Jai Field, a second for Eckersley, Liam Marshall and Sam Walters after the break earned the Cherry and Whites the two points in a clinical display.
Warriors leapfrog bitter rivals St Helens in the table and are now four points behind league leaders Hull KR while Wakefield remain seventh, just one point below Hull FC and the play-off places.
Following a dominant opening 15 minutes from the hosts, a well-weighted grubber kick from French found Australian centre Keighran who strongly held off two defenders to touch down and open the scoring.
Another French grubber kick intended for Walters then rebounded off the goalpost before French reacted quickest to the loose ball to dot down underneath the sticks for his 100th try in Super League.
Warriors grabbed their third in the 32nd minute when an outstanding one-handed offload from French found Liam Farrell, who in turn set up Eckersley to dive over unopposed in the right corner.
In the last act of the first half, Max Jowitt got Wakefield on the board with a good kick from the right side after Wigan’s defence were caught offside.
SWPIXWith five minutes of the second period played, Marshall found space down the left hand side before unselfishly setting up Nsemba to walk in Warriors’ fourth try and effectively end the match as a contest.
During a comfortable afternoon for the hosts, Farrell then found Patrick Mago, whose line break allowed him to set up Field to finish a lovely move.
In his 100th appearance in Super League for Wigan, Ethan Havard was sent to the sin-bin for clattering Lachlan Walmsley high on the hour mark.
Despite being down to 12 men, Wigan overloaded the visitors on the right wing, with French and Farrell involved once more, before Eckersley dotted down his second try.
With Havard back on the field and Trinity’s Mason Lino temporarily off having been shown a green card, winger Marshall got on the scoresheet when he acrobatically dived in at the corner with a trademark finish before Walters completed the rout, powering over with a minute left.
‘We were poor’ – reaction
Wigan Warriors boss Matt Peet said:
“I’m determined to get us to be able to handle it better when we’ve got certain players missing but we look more of a threat with our running, passing and kicking.”
On Bevan French’s return from injury:
“Getting Bevan back, there’s no shying away from him improving us and giving us more balance. There was more to it than that but he was excellent, he probably exceeded my expectations.
“He threw one ball on the floor in the second half and [Wigan assistant] Tommy Leuluai was a bit miffed.
“We have to be careful that we don’t have too high expectations but I thought he was brilliant.”
Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell told BBC Radio Leeds:
“We just gave away too much in the first half. We started the game pretty well, we got into good positions, but we dropped the ball when we went to play and you can’t do those things against Wigan.
“[It was] difficult to defend, both the first two tries. Wigan had 91% territory in the first half – if you’re going to win a game against Wigan, you aren’t doing it with those sort of stats.
“I just thought we were poor. Individual players have to play well for the team to play well – so yeah, not great today, but a bit of perspective is needed from where we’ve come from. I thought they were really good today and we were really poor.
“I don’t think we’ve come out of the break well, so we need to take our flip flops off and get the studs back out.”
Wigan: Field; Eckersley, Keighran, Wardle, Marshall; French, Smith; Havard, O’Neill, Byrne, Walters, Farrell, Ellis
Interchanges: Nsemba, Mago, Leeming, Hill.
Sin-bin: Havard (60 mins)
Wakefield: Jowitt; Walmsley, Scott, Pratt, Johnstone; Trueman, Lino; McMeeken, Hood, Storton, Vagana, Griffin, Pitts
Interchanges: Atoni, Cozza, Smith, Faatili.
Referee: Chris Kendall.
