Warriors tear Quins apart
Rampant Wigan scored 42 points in the first half as they thrashed struggling Harlequins 54-6 at the DW Stadium.
Last Updated: 14/05/11 7:48am
Rampant Wigan scored 42 points in the first half as they thrashed struggling Harlequins 54-6 at the DW Stadium on Friday night.
Thomas Leuluai, Pat Richards and Sam Tomkins each scored two tries apiece to help the Warriors coast to a fifth straight Super League win.
Richards also added nine goals to finish with a personal 26-point haul, as the reigning champions gained revenge for their shock loss to the London club in the corresponding fixture last season.
Quins had on that occasion fought back from a large half-time deficit to stun their opponents but this time they were already well beaten by the break.
Immediate blow
Their hopes of ending a nine-game losing run in Super League took an immediate blow when, before they had barely touched the ball, a Tomkins bomb led to Richards going over on the left wing.
Wigan quickly showed they were in the mood when Leuluai's short pass put Australian Ryan Hoffman through from close range soon after.
George Carmont intercepted a Luke Gale pass just inside the Quins half to go all the way in the 11th minute and, just a minute later, Tomkins backed up a Michael McIlorum break for an easy run-in under the posts.
Leuluai twice cut through a paper-thin defence in the space of four minutes to reach the line and before the half-hour mark had been reached, skipper Sean O'Loughlin had also touched down for Michael Maguire's side.
Amazingly, Wigan failed to muster any further points in the remaining 13 minutes of the opening half, allowing Quins to finally get some respite.
Little threat
The visitors did go close themselves through Olsi Krasniqi and then enjoyed more possession after the break, albeit that they posed little threat.
Tomkins completed his brace after 53 minutes when he got on the end of Paul Deacon's kick, the latter having to hack on his own initial effort to create the score for his team-mate.
Winger Josh Charnley should have added his name to the lengthy scoresheet but he just failed to reel in Joel Tomkins' wide pass with the line begging.
Quins did at least get some points themselves with just two minutes to play when Luke Gale, who also landed the conversion, recovered Karl Pryce's wayward pass to send winger Mark Calderwood over out wide.
However, Wigan refused to allow their opponents to have the last word - points-machine Richards charged over on the left at the death before adding the extras to round out the scoring in an extremely one-sided contest.