Wigan Warriors 26 Hull FC 12: Disappointed coach Lee Radford says Wigan ‘did tidy job on us’

Hull FC coach Lee Radford failed to hide his disappointment after seeing his side crash to a second consecutive Super League defeat.
Wigan's Willie Isa Tommy Leuluai and Zak Hardaker  tackle Hull's Josh GriffinWigan's Willie Isa Tommy Leuluai and Zak Hardaker  tackle Hull's Josh Griffin
Wigan's Willie Isa Tommy Leuluai and Zak Hardaker tackle Hull's Josh Griffin

The Black and Whites conceded 16 second-half points and Radford is unhappy at the way they are attacking as well.

“The second half they came out and did a tidy job on us,” he said. “We made some costly errors and they slowly ground us down. It looks painful some of the plays we are running.

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“You have got to break the opposition’s momentum with some special efforts and we probably didn’t see enough of them.

“We needed a bit more from everybody, we just slowly got ground down with a team that had a lot of possession.

“They didn’t do anything spectacular but did their jobs really well. I don’t think anyone was outstanding today. Josh Griffin was head and shoulders our best player I thought.

“But there were a lot of OK performances around that.”

In contrast, Wigan head coach Adrian Lam was delighted that Dom Manfredi managed to get through the full 80 minutes on his latest long-awaited return from injury.

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Manfredi, who scored two tries in Wigan’s Grand Final win in 2018, has been out of action since picking up a serious knee injury against Castleford Tigers back in July. The 26-year-old has had a tough time with injuries with three serious knee problems in the past four years, but he marked his return with a try.

“We just sung in the dressing room for him,” said Lam. “He’s respected highly by his peers, like no other player at the club I have noticed.

“They love him. We wanted to pick him last week, but he wasn’t quite mentally right in himself. He wanted to play a reserve game, which we allowed him to do.

“I think that will do his confidence the world of good.

“His carries are some of the strongest, not only in Super League but in the world. It’s only going to be beneficial for us.”

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Bevan French and Jackson Hastings were the difference-makers as the two Australians both crossed for tries and also claimed assists as the Black and Whites slumped to consecutive defeats.

Wigan fought back from 8-0 down to lead 10-8 at the break following an entertaining half that saw both teams have players sin-binned.

The Warriors opened the scoring after three minutes when Hastings and Liam Farrell combined expertly to send French in under the posts for his fourth try of the season.

French was causing Hull problems and he made a break down the right before sending a kick infield for Zak Hardaker to chase, but the centre was unable to win the race for the ball.

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Hardaker extended Wigan’s lead to eight points with a penalty after 14 minutes.

Hull finally found their feet but Mahe Fonua was prevented from scoring thanks to a fine three-man tackle involving French, Liam Marshall and Jake Bibby.

But they found a way through when Griffin intercepted a ball from French near his own line and he eventually sent Adam Swift racing away to score.

Farrell was then penalised for interfering at the play-the-ball and Marc Sneyd levelled with the penalty. Griffin and Farrell were both shown yellow cards following a melee to leave each team temporarily down to 12 men before Hardaker slotted over the resulting penalty.

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The first try of the second half would be crucial and it fell to Wigan’s Manfredi after 45 minutes.

The hosts threw everything at the Hull line and they got their reward as Hastings stretched over from close range to score. Hardaker converted to open up a 12-point lead.

The Warriors put the game to bed with 13 minutes remaining when substitute Harry Smith’s first involvement saw him chase his own kick and put Swift under enough pressure to see him fail to ground the ball and allow Willie Isa the simple task of touching down.

Hardaker converted and the Warriors were out of sight.

Hull had the final say when Griffin broke through a poor tackle attempt from Hardaker to race 40 metres to score in the corner but it was too little, too late.