Wigan edge out Wakefield in Challenge Cup thriller

ByMatthew Cresswell

BBC Sport England

Betfred Challenge Cup

Wakefield (16) 22

Tries: Trueman, Rodwell, Johnstone, Scott Goals: Jowitt 3

Wigan (18) 26

Tries: Mago, Marshall, Field, Eckersley 2 Goals: Keighran 3

Wigan Warriors edged out Wakefield Trinity in a Challenge Cup quarter-final thriller at Belle Vue.

Warriors had to overcome a frenetic start from the hosts, who raced into a 12-point lead after a quarter of an hour, rallying to claim a first win in three matches.

Zach Eckersley scored two tries for Wigan, and Patrick Mago, Liam Marshall and Jai Field grabbed one each in a pulsating encounter in West Yorkshire, which also included a number of flare-ups between the two sets of players.

Jake Trueman opened the scoring for Trinity and Ky Rodwell, Tom Johnstone and Cam Scott also crashed over for the hosts, who battled bravely.

The victory means Wigan will play bitter rivals St Helens in the semi-finals, while Hull KR will face Warrington Wolves in a repeat of last year's Wembley final.

An incisive move from Wakefield allowed them to break the deadlock after seven minutes when a lovely line break from Mike McMeeken allowed him to play the perfect inside ball to the supporting Trueman to slide over.

Wigan were on the ropes at that stage and their defence was breached once more six minutes later as Trueman powered forward and fed Rodwell, who managed to dink the ball on the line through three defenders.

The visitors got on the board after 20 minutes, though, when Liam Farrell batted the ball back to Mago to run through unopposed.

And Warriors were level when Marshall cut inside Mason Lino on the left touchline to score in trademark fashion after the Samoan half-back had just prevented a score for the visitors moments earlier.

Wakefield then nudged themselves back in front with arguably the best try of the match when a stunning move to the left ended with wing Johnstone finishing beautifully one-handed in the corner.

The home side were then dealt a big blow when prop Jazz Tevaga was sent to the bin for a petulant kick-out after he believed he was trapped on the floor by Marshall.

Wigan reaped the rewards of their numerical advantage right on half-time when Field dotted down Harry Smith's kick underneath the sticks, and after Adam Keighran kicked the goal they went into the interval with a slender lead.

The half-time break did not put a pin in the tempo at which the match was played, and Eckersley dotted down on the right wing after getting on the end of another kick by Smith to race through.

But Wakefield were always in the tie and drew level when Scott exploited a gap in Wigan's right edge to touch down behind the posts, and Max Jowitt added the extras to move on to 1,000 points for Trinity in his career.

After a scuffle on halfway, Eckersley got his second of the half, found by Keighran after he had collected Mago's excellently fired cut-out pass to dot down what proved to be the winner.

The home side continued to threaten late on, but a superb interception from Junior Nsemba prevented Wakefield's final opportunity of the day.

Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell told BBC Radio Leeds:

"A tough game to lose, obviously. It was pretty close - not much between the teams. I felt like some key moments in the game unraveled us, or maybe we unraveled ourselves.

"We are in the fight against the better teams, which is where we want to be, but we've lost a knockout game, so obviously there is some disappointment in the changing rooms.

"Defensively, I think we would want to be a little bit stiffer, earlier in the sets, and give ourselves the best chance to have a set-for-set battle.

"But ultimately we lose a game that there is not much in, and with a little bit more clarity I think we could have won it."

On Jazz Tevaga's sin-bin: "I thought Liam Marshall knew what he was doing, to be honest.

"He sits out on Jazz's leg, but I don't think Jazz can respond like that. I don't have any problem with the sin-binning, but I thought that was pretty cute from Liam. A key lesson there."

Wigan Warriors head coach Matt Peet told BBC One:

"It was better than this time last week. It's been a challenging week, I'm really proud of some of the performance off the back of what we did in training.

"A lot of it was scrambled efforts, desire. When the system broke down - which happened a few times - Wakefield throw a lot at you.

"I thought we had a bit more desire, which was something that St Helens outdid us [with] last week.

"I don't hold the players to task too much on the decisions they make, but the communication and attitude to cover for one another I think, is what defines good defensive teams."

Wakefield: Jowitt; Pratt, Scott, Hall, Johnstone; Trueman, Lino; McMeeken, Smoothy, Rodwell, Vagana, Nikotemo, Pitts.

Interchanges: Tevaga, Hamlin-Uele, Smith, Lolesio.

Sin-bin: Tevaga (36 mins).

Wigan: Field; Eckersley, Keighran, Farrell, Marshall; Farrimond, Smith; Eseh, O'Neill, Thompson, Nsemba, Walters, Ellis.

Interchanges: Mago, Partington, McDermott, Hodkinson.

Referee: Liam Moore.