Mighty Warriors slay Saints

Wigan's Ryan Hoffman makes some hard yards

Wigan crushed St Helens 32-10 in an almost totally dominant display to go top of the Super League table.

The two previous derby meetings this season have produced rollercoaster thrillers - a draw and a narrow Wigan win - but this one was almost entirely one-sided.

The hosts could barely get out of their own half as Wigan's pack battered them into submission and they did not muster an attack of note in the first 40 minutes.

In that time Wigan had amassed a 20-0 lead and despite surrendering an 18-point advantage at Castleford last week, the defending champions never looked likely to let this one slip.

Both sides spent the opening 10 minutes probing with the forwards and kicking for position, but ominously it was Wigan who were making the metres and dominating the ruck area.

The breakthrough came after 14 minutes when Paul Wellens failed to deal with a high bomb from Pat Richards to hand Wigan field position and four tackles later Thomas Leuluai's bullet pass sent Lee Mossop crashing over, with Richards kicking the first of his six goals.

Saints simply could not make ground and were constantly kicking from inside their own 40, so it was something of a surprise that after Chris Flannery interfered at a play-the-ball, Richards kicked a penalty for an 8-0 lead.

Inspired

But that proved an inspired move as Wigan scored back-to-back tries without Saints touching the ball.

The first set forced a drop-out, then Paul Deacon put in a cross-field kick which Richards plucked out of the air to score.

Wigan's third try also came from a kick. This time Kyle Eastmond let a short but towering kick bounce and Joel Tomkins took advantage to race in from 40 metres.

Saints needed to score first after the break but it was Wigan who were fastest out of the traps, with Michael McIlorum's burst and pass from dummy half putting Brett Finch over.

Around the hour mark Saints rallied briefly, with first Tony Puletua scoring from close range after Charnley knocked-on, then Tommy Makinson touching down Lee Gaskell's grubber.

But the Warriors never wavered and it was fitting that they had the final say as Finch's grubber kick was touched down by Jeff Lima for his first Wigan try.