Wigan enjoy Bulls beating

Wigan Warriors enjoyed the perfect build-up to next week's World Club Challenge with a comfortable 44-10 victory at Bradford Bulls on Sunday.

Returning winger Amos Roberts bagged two tries as he prepares to face his old club St George Illawarra Dragons at the DW Stadium next week.

Roberts missed much of last season with a knee injury and sat out last week's opening draw with St Helens to attend the birth of his son, quickly made up for lost time as the defending champions cruised to their first win of the season in front of a 15,348 crowd at Odsal.

Recalled in place of youngster Josh Charnley, Roberts took George Carmont's pass after just 10 minutes to cross for his first try since last June and added a second after the break to snuff out a brief Bradford fightback.

The Bulls were without scrum-half Kyle Briggs and loose forward Jamie Langley, and with new signing Marc Herbert still sidelined, they had eight players on home debut and, not surprisingly, looked disjointed at times.

They were realistically out of the contest by half-time, when they trailed 26-0, but produced enough spirit and determination in the second half to suggest they could challenge for a play-off spot.

Fielden returns

Wigan, who had England prop Stuart Fielden back in place of the suspended Jeff Lima, were in dominant mood once Roberts had opening the scoring and he looked to have added another only to be held up on his back over the line.

The Warriors maintained the pressure, however, and extended their lead when second rower Harrison Hansen took advantage of centre Chev Walker's fumble over his own line in attempting to catch a high kick from Paul Deacon.

Deacon, the former Bulls captain who scored a club record 2,371 points in his 12 seasons at Odsal, kicked the first of six goals from eight attempts to provide a painful reminder of his prolific scoring prowess.

It was all Wigan in the first half and skipper Sean O'Loughlin had a clear view of the line when he was brought back for a forward pass but there was no stopping scrum half Thomas Leuluai as he jinked his way through the heart of the Bradford defence for a solo try.

Even the loss through injury of centre Martin Gleeson could not disrupt the champions, who added two further tries in the last five minutes of the first half, with Sam Tomkins the architect of both.

Farrell try

The England international made the break for substitute Liam Farrell to cross and then combined with the same player to get right winger Darrell Goulding over at the corner.

Bradford overcome a 20-0 deficit to win 22-20 in the corresponding fixture last year and they hinted at another fightback when second rower Elliott Whitehead scored his fourth try in two games three minutes after the re-start, winning the race to Matt Diskin's grubber kick.

Patrick Ah Van added the goal and then, on 55 minutes, juggled with the ball after collecting Paul Sykes' high kick before touching down for his second try in as many games to make it 26-10.

But any anxiety in the Wigan camp was eased midway through the second half when another slick passing move created the space for Roberts to score his second try and the visitors finished in total control with two late tries from Carmont and Sam Tomkins.