Wigan Warriors 54 Wakefield Trinity 10: Coach Poching laments poor defensive display

He said: “Defensively, we were way off today. We tried to address some of that at half time, but we didn’t quite get a stronghold on what we wanted to do at the start of that second half. They were doing quick off-loads, and by play three they were on halfway. They had the ascendency for a while.”

Although Poching cannot really argue about the decision to send Kelepi Tanginoa to the sin-bin in the first half.

Poching added: “Difficult as it was, it was more difficult with 12 men. To lose Kelepi before half-time was tough. They were 24 points already when we had 13 men.

“There were some moments too often when we couldn’t get a quick play-the-ball. It was a physical thing and an attitude thing. Full credit to Wigan; they were fantastic.”

Wigan found themselves behind early on with Thomas Minns scoring in the corner, but three tries in seven first-half minutes put the home side in full control.

Bevan French - who raced 65 metres for his first - scored two tries either side of a Brad Singleton effort as they looked to put Good Friday’s derby defeat behind them.

Abbas Miski got on the score sheet before the half ended and they led 24-4 with Harry Smith kicking all four conversions, while Kelepi Tanginoa was sin-binned for dissent for Trinity.

A brace of second-half tries from Jai Field and one each from Smith and Cade Cust put the Warriors out of sight. Jacob Miller grabbed a consolation for Wakefield, before Singleton scored his second and Wigan’s ninth.

Wakefield started the strongest and forced two dropouts as they camped on Wigan’s line with Mason Lino going close.

A penalty saw them keep the pressure on and they finally made their pressure tell with Lino and Reece Lyne combining down the right to send Minns in at the corner.

It did not take Wigan long to hit back with a try out of nothing as Field collected a kick downfield, off-loaded to French and the winger did the rest as he raced in from 65 metres.

Wigan kept the momentum going with their second try in three minutes as Singleton raced onto a short ball from fellow prop Liam Byrne to score under the posts. The Warriors were dominating now and made it three tries inside the opening 23 minutes. Liam Farrell and Field combined down the left before finding French for his second.

The home side extended their lead even further with winger Miski scoring his first try for the club as he took a pass from Sam Halsall and used his strength to score in the corner.

Wakefield ended the half with 12 men as Tanginoa was shown a yellow card for kicking the ball away in disgust after he dropped the ball with the line at his mercy.

The Warriors put this game to bed in terms of a contest three minutes after the break. Smith showed a lot of composure as he stepped his way through the Wakefield defence to score under the posts. They did it again as Patrick Mago broke clear before off-loading to Field, who raced away untouched. Wigan continued to pile forward and picked up a loose ball and Field once again ghosted through untouched for his second try. Smith’s conversion saw them hit 40 points.

The Warriors scored their eighth try of the game with still 28 minutes to play as Miski broke down the right and sent a kick infield for Cust to score.

Trinity did manage to score themselves in the second half as Miller was on hand to go over, but Wigan had the final say as Singleton grabbed his second try to take the Warriors past the half-century mark.