Wigan Warriors 60-12 Bradford Bulls
Wigan Warriors will head for next Saturday's Challenge Cup final as the Super League leaders after easing to a 12-try victory over a Bradford Bulls team for whom another poor season cannot end soon enough.
This was pretty much the ideal preparation before Wigan's first trip to Wembley for 13 years, as they seemed to avoid any injury or disciplinary worries, and Sam Tomkins again turned on the style.
The full-back scored two tries, one of them a length-of-the-field spectacular, to extend a hot streak which has now brought him 12 from his past six appearances, suggesting he is in the form of his life to face Leeds on the grandest stage of his career so far.
Wigan now have a three-point lead over Warrington at the top of the table with only two matches to play, meaning a victory in the Super League derby between the teams that follows the cup final would guarantee the League Leaders' Shield for the second consecutive season.
"The players wanted to make sure they nailed this game going into what's happening next week," said the champions' coach, Michael Maguire, who rested three likely members of his Wembley squad and gave a couple more a breather during the second half but resisted the temptation to wrap Tomkins in cotton wool.
Perhaps to Bradford's surprise, and certainly against all pre-match expectations and the flow of the game itself, the Bulls remained in contention at half-time when they trailed 18-12. Wigan had scored four of the game's first five tries but Pat Richards fell below his usual goalkicking standards in converting only one whereas Patrick Ah Van added the extras to Bulls scores from Craig Kopczak and the young substitute John Bateman, both of which came from accurate high kicks.
George Carmont scored two unspectacular tries for Wigan, the first from acting half and the second a gift from Ah Van's fumble behind his own line. The Samoan centre could easily have claimed a hat-trick but instead sent Richards in at the corner for his first, and Ryan Hoffman also touched down from Sean O'Loughlin's bullet pass.
Tomkins then seized the game by the scruff early in the second half. He scored his 30th try of the season, a typically eyecatching individual effort, and provided telling passes in the build-up to further scores from Josh Charnley and O'Loughlin. There was a reminder of the danger of leaving him on, as he was the victim of a high tackle by Paul Sykes which was the most worrying moment of a relaxed night for the home supporters. But he bounced straight back up.
Richards outjumped the hapless Ah Van to collect an accurate kick from Paul Deacon, the former Bradford scrum-half who will crown his long career with a first Wembley appearance next weekend, before Tomkins produced the try of the night.
Harrison Hansen also crashed over, Charnley galloped away for a long-range second and Richards completed a hat-trick. The Australian wing's goalkicking problems continued, as he ended with six out of 12, but Wigan will not lose any sleep over that ? Richards has shown on numerous occasions that he has the temperament for the sort of occasion that now awaits.
Wigan Warriors S Tomkins; Charnley, J Tomkins, Carmont, Richards; O'Loughlin (capt), Deacon; Lima, Leuluai, Hock, Hansen, Hoffman, Farrell. Interchange Goulding, McIlorum, Prescott, O'Carroll.
Tries Carmont 2, Hoffman, Richards 3, S Tomkins 2, Charnley 2, O'Loughlin, Hansen Goals Richards 6 Bradford Bulls Kearney; Ah Van, Sykes, Royston, Raynor; Jeffries, Herbert; Lynch (capt), Addy, Hargreaves, Sibbit, Elima, Langley. Interchange Kopczak, O'Brien, Burgess, Bateman.
Tries Kopczak, Bateman Goals Ah Van 2.
Referee B Thaler (Wakefield). Attendance 13,940.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/aug/19/wigan-warriors-bradford-bulls-super-league
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