Wigan Warriors coasted to victory over cash-strapped Salford Red Devils as they ran in 10 tries at the sun-kissed Brick Community Stadium.
After successive narrow defeats by Hull FC in the Challenge Cup and at Leeds in Super League last Saturday night, last season’s record-breaking four-times trophy winners restored a bit of order.
But they were still given a far better game than they might have thought against crisis club Salford, whose unpaid players put in a far bigger shift than might have been expected of them, in the patched-up club’s current circumstances.
Hat-trick man Jake Wardle got the 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 Wigan forward Brad O’Neill, who came back after last season’s ACL injury for his first appearance since July.
But, although Wigan did all the scoring, and made it 13 straight wins over Salford in the process, it was also a day for praising the visitors’ weakened, wearied and depleted troops for all the considerable and unrewarded effort they put in.
And their day was complete when Nathan Connell’s last-minute try was cruelly ruled out for a perceived knock-on – to gasps of disappointment even from the home section of the crowd.
