Wigan 34-0 Leeds: Warriors take advantage of injury-hit Leeds

Match stats: Wigan 34-0 Leeds

Wigan tries: McIlorum (11), Tomkins (15), Williams (31, 73), Gildart (50, 54), Davies (71)
Goals: Williams (11, 54), Powell (73) 

Match report

England stand-off George Williams scored two tries to make up for an off day with the boot as Wigan put a weakened Leeds to the sword with a 34-0 victory at the DW Stadium.

No doubt with an eye on next Saturday's Challenge Cup semi-final against Hull, Leeds coach Brian McDermott went into the last match of the regular season before the split for the Super 8s without 15 senior players.

The Rhinos had three debutants, including 17-year-old threequarter Harry Newman, who made history by becoming the first player born this century to play in Super League, and another three players on the bench with just three Super League appearances between them.

Not surprisingly, it was largely men against boys for most of the match as the Warriors eased their way to a much-needed victory that keeps alive their hopes of a top-four finish.

Leeds had little to cheer in a second defeat in seven matches but they are still comfortably in second place going into the Super 8s.

The Yorkshiremen coped less well than their opponents in the wet conditions but Wigan were unable to take full advantage of the plethora of errors.

Hooker Michael McIlorum opened the scoring on 10 minutes, dummying his way over for his first try of the season and Williams kicked his only conversion.

Full-back Sam Tomkins then showed a touch of class which could yet earn him an England recall by threading the ball through the Leeds defence and winning the race to touch down and double his try tally for the season.

As Wigan continued to pummel the visitors' defence, second rower Willie Isa twice forced his way over from close range but had both efforts disallowed by video official James Child, the second time for an obstruction not spotted by match referee Ben Thaler.

The pressure told on 31 minutes when a jinking Williams sliced his way through for his first try but his conversion attempt rebounded off an upright to leave his side leading 14-0.

Leeds rarely threatened the Wigan line and when 17-year-old full-back Jack Walker went close he lost his grip on the ball as he stretched out for the corner.

It was a similar story in the second half, with the Rhinos pinned inside their own half for long periods but with Wigan unable to press home their advantage.

Centre Oliver Gildart went over for two tries in five minutes in the third quarter but it was only in the last 10 minutes when the champions began to flex their muscles.

Quick hands by Tomkins and centre Anthony Gelling provided just enough space for winger Tom Davies to finish athletically at the corner to bring up Wigan's century of Super League tries in 2017 and Gildart broke clear to get Williams over for his second try.

With just one goal from six attempts, Williams gave way to Sam Powell who converted his side's seventh try to wrap up a comfortable if unimpressive victory.

Match reaction

Mixed emotions for Leeds boss Brian McDermott: "They're experiences I can't give them in training. Mikolaj Oledzki has never been hit like that before. There were some valuable lessons. I can't tell you I'm happy but I'm not down either. On paper it was going to be a tough night and we had hoped the game would have been closer. We are disappointed by the final scoreline and disappointed we didn't score a try. But for large parts of the game we put up a fair amount of resistance against a very determined Wigan who were out to respond to their defeat last week. There were some good bits in there for us to feel proud of. The half-time score was a better reflection than 34-0. Once our juniors and also to some extent our senior guys started to fatigue, we conceded some soft tries."

On the injury situation ahead of next week's Challenge Cup semi-final against Hull: "Everybody thinks it's a master plan but we play a collision sport and everyone who didn't play tonight were ruled out with concussion or something else. I don't think any of them (apart from Keith Galloway) are in serious doubt for next week but let's get through Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday first."

Wigan coach Shaun Wane on a comfortable win: "It was definitely a no-win situation. We knew Leeds were busted. We're not patting each other on the back but I liked the manner in which we went about our business in those conditions, which were very testing. A 77 per cent completion rate was good, some of our defence was very good and we scored some good tries. We've got 100 tries this season so we're doing something okay. But we won't get carried away. Next week will be a different challenge."