 | MATCH SUMMARY St Helens (18) 48
Tries: Sculthorpe, Wellens, Long, Gardner, Hardman, Hooper 2, Pryce
Goals: Lyon 8 Wigan (0) 10
Tries: Ashton, James
Goal: Richards |
Coachless Wigan continued their dismal start to the season as they were crushed by unbeaten Super League leaders St Helens at Knowsley Road. Saints weathered early Wigan pressure but Paul Sculthorpe, Paul Wellens and Sean Long all scored before the break.
Ade Gardner increased the lead but Wigan did reply through Chris Ashton.
Saints were rampant late on with Ian Hardman, Jason Hooper (twice) and Leon Pryce all scoring, while Jordan James scored a late Wigan consolation.
The defeat leaves the Warriors rooted to the bottom of the table with just one victory from their opening nine games. They have now lost six on the bounce, their worst run for 24 years.
Their poor start to the season led to Ian Millward's dismissal this week after less than a year in charge.
His replacement, with Bradford's Brian Noble the stand-out favourite, will have to arrest the decline immediately if they want to shrug off the spectre of relegation.
Wigan's youngsters battled hard and at times the defence against Saints was heroic, but they made too many basic mistakes, especially as they closed in on the Saints line.
They started impressively at a packed, noisy and sun-bathed Knowsley Road but, after Sculthorpe went through a gap on eight minutes and Wellens finished off a long-range attack soon after, the result was never really in doubt.
St Helens had plenty of opportunities to add to their lead but were kept out by some morale-boosting Wigan defence, although Pryce's break led to Long crossing on 38 minutes.
Gardner went over in the corner for his ninth try of the season just after half-time but Wigan showed their fighting qualities when Ashton held off Hardman and then ran in from long range.
Wigan's earlier efforts seemed to catch up with them in the last quarter and St Helens were able to score four times in 14 minutes to complete the rout.
Wigan did have the last word through James but it was too little too late.
The Warriors fans had to suffer the chants of "going down" from the gleeful Saints fans as they left to make their way home.
St Helens coach Daniel Anderson: "We knew it would be a quite emotional game for both sides.
"It was a scratchy game. A lot of players had mixed games.
"We were nowhere near our best but some of our tackling was exhilarating and to score 48 points shows our potency."
Wigan chairman Maurice Lindsay: "It was no disgrace to us and we go into a big game with Harlequins on Monday with reasonable pride intact.
"I thought we fought well for the whole game, especially when you consider we were without so many players.
"Lots of the youngsters were superb. Their commitment was excellent."
St Helens: Wellens, Gardner, Lyon, Talau, Hardman, Pryce, Long, P Anderson, Cunningham, Cayless, Sculthorpe, Wilkin, Hooper.
Replacements: Fa'asavalu, Graham, Roby, V Anderson.
Wigan: Moran, Ashton, Vaealiki, Richards, Dallas, Orr, Higham, Seu Seu, Godwin, Hargreaves, Jonkers, James, O'Loughlin.
Replacements: Goulding, Tomkins, O'Carroll, Wilkes.
Att: 17,500
Referee: K Kirkpatrick (Warrington).
MMIX
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Bring on Noble and let's hope he can get Wigan back on track