Wane hails 'scratchy' win

Shaun Wane: Pleased with win

Wigan coach Shaun Wane admitted that his side were some way from their best but was still pleased to claim a 54-12 victory over Widnes at the DW Stadium.

The Warriors ran in 10 tries, three of them from winger Josh Charnley, to avenge their shock 37-36 defeat at the Stobart Stadium in March.

Skipper Sean O'Loughlin slotted effortlessly into the halves to offset the loss of scrum-half Thomas Leuluai with a broken leg and the Warriors never looked in danger of losing.

Charnley finished with a 26-point haul to take over as Super League's leading scorer for 2012 while stand-off Brett Finch also caught the eye with a brace of tries.

"We were desperate to win that one. It wasn't as convincing as I wanted it to be but Widnes have got some good players." Wane said.

"It was a scratchy performance. We were not at our best but when you consider what we've been through the last few weeks, I'm fairly happy.

Injuries

"We lost a couple of major members of our first-team squad and, having a week off, I knew we wouldn't be at our absolute best today.

"At the end of the day we scored 50 points at home so I'd say it was okay."

Charnley took the individual honours but Wane singled out hooker Michael McIlorum for his outstanding display.

Wane added: "Josh did well. He's been doing that for me for years. He's a great asset to the club, an outstanding player.

"But the outstanding player for me was Micky Mac. I thought he was ruthless and his pass selection from dummy half was brilliant."

Widnes never recovered from conceding three tries in the first 13 minutes, although they managed to score tries through former Wigan prop Ben Cross and stand-off Joe Mellor, who is on loan from the Warriors.

Back foot

"We talked about the start and knew they would come after us," said Vikings coach Denis Betts.

"We gave a penalty away in the first set and put ourselves on the back foot. That was our worst fear.

"I'm massively disappointed. We defended well in patches but there were some real poor individual errors, some embarrassing one-on-one stuff. There was loads of endeavour and lots of effort but some poor quality."

Widnes suffered two more injury blows in losing centre Willie Isa with hyper-extended elbow and former Wigan full-back Shaun Briscoe with a torn pectoral muscle.

Briscoe was making his first appearance for almost three months and is now facing another lengthy spell on the sidelines.

Betts added: "It's been one of those years for him. We've missed his influence. His character is really good around the place so he's another big loss to us."