St Helens 16 Wigan Warriors 42: Leaders Wigan thrash Saints as tempers boil over at Etihad

The Warriors had forwards Gareth Hock and Chris Tuson sent off by referee Ben Thaler, along with St Helens substitute Shaun Magennis, after they were ruled largely responsible for the fighting that erupted at a scrum in the 53rd minute.

Wigan were leading 34-6 at the time and managed to hang on with 11 men for a comfortable victory that brought down the curtain on the two-day jamboree at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium in stunning fashion.

The double-chasing Warriors were simply unstoppable as they swept aside their arch rivals for the third time in two months to extend their winning run in all matches to 10.

Winger Josh Charnley, Super League’s top tryscorer, scored two of his side’s eight touchdowns to take his tally for the season to 20 and make up for another off-day with the boot.

He missed all four kicks at goal in his previous match against Huddersfield and managed just five successes from 10 attempts last night to let Saints off the hook.

Full-back Sam Tomkins was also in magnificent tryscoring form but it was in-form Australian stand-off Brett Finch who did most of the early damage, creating the opening for Tomkins’s first try and then getting Hock in the clear for the second.

Tomkins thrilled the Wigan fans who accounted for a good proportion of the crowd of 32,953 at the Etihad Stadium with a brilliant 50-metre solo try, demonstrating his guile and acceleration to take his tally for the season to 12.

It was near-perfection for the Warriors as captain Sean O’Loughlin took a return pass from Darrell Goulding to touch down and, although a jinking run from Jonny Lomax created a try for Paul Clough, it was largely one-way traffic up to half-time.

Charnley grabbed his second on the stroke of the interval, racing onto Goulding’s deft kick to the corner, and it got even better for Wigan when veteran centre George Carmont, who turns 34 next month, fended off Michael Shenton to race 80 metres for their seventh try.

That took Wigan’s lead to 34-6 but they were forced to play the last 27 minutes with 11 men after Hock and Tuson paid the price for the second-half flare-up.

St Helens lost replacement forward Magennis at the same time but they gave themselves brief renewed hope when Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook showed exceptional pace for a prop to score a 20-metre try.

But Charnley kicked a penalty and then broke down the wing to get replacement back row Liam Farrell over for Wigan’s eighth try before Wellens scored a consolation effort for his well-beaten side.

Widnes Vikings were drubbed 68-4 by Warrington on their Magic Weekend debut, with the Wolves running in 12 tries as they equalled their own high-scoring record at the two-day event in the process.

Joel Monaghan scored five tries and Matty Blythe three as Widnes were blown apart. They have lost their last seven games and are rock bottom of the table.

Leon Pryce and Remi Casty scored two tries each as Catalan Dragons beat London Broncos 42-18 yesterday.