Wigan Warriors coasted to victory over cash-strapped Salford Red Devils as they ran in 10 tries at a sun-kissed Brick Community Stadium.
After successive narrow defeats by Hull FC in the Challenge Cup and at Leeds in Super League, last season’s record-breaking quadruple winners restored a bit of order.
But they were still given a better game than they might have thought by crisis club Salford, whose unpaid players put in a far bigger shift than might have been expected in their current circumstances, especially after it was reported, by the PA Media news agency among others, that two players – Kallum Watkins and Chris Atkin – had refused to feature.
Hat-trick man Jake Wardle got Wigan’s first, third and last tries, while Jai Field got two, and Junior Nsemba, Liam Marshall, Bevan French, Sam Walters and Zach Eckersley also crossed, all festooned by seven conversions out of 10 from Harry Smith.
Against a Salford side who could so easily not have turned up at all, Wigan also had four other tries chalked off – and the home fans enjoyed a welcome return to action for young forward Brad O’Neill, who came back after last season’s ACL injury for his first appearance since July.
Although Wigan did all the scoring, and made it 13 straight wins over Salford in the process, this was also a day to praise the visitors’ weakened, wearied and depleted troops for all the considerable and unrewarded effort they put in.
And they nearly had a consolation late on, but Nathan Connell’s last-minute try was cruelly ruled out for a perceived knock-on – to gasps of disappointment even from the home fans.
