WIGAN WARRIORS 54 SALFORD RED DEVILS 0
DAVID KUZIO, The Brick Community Stadium, Sunday
BEFORE the game the talk was not about who would win but about how many, and inevitably Wigan eased past a hurting Salford side.
The drama surrounding the Red Devils off the pitch continues to have a brutal impact on it, with a full team only cobbled together with numerous youngsters and loanees.
Chris Atkin and Kallum Watkins withdraw before the game amid continued player unrest at the club’s situation.
St Helens’ Jonny Vaughan, Castleford’s George Hill and, off the bench, reserves player Scott Egan made debuts.
Salford were in the game for the first 20 minutes, but three tries in a ten-minute spell despite former Red Devil Tyler Dupree being in the sin bin set the hosts away.
The champions opened the scoring in the tenth minute when Kruise Leeming sent Junior Nsemba through a gap down the blindside and he offloaded for Jake Wardle to grab the opener.
Dupree was shown the yellow card for contact to the head of Nathan Connell, but the Warriors extended their lead when Sam Walters made a break with his first touch, after a sublime offload from Kaide Ellis, and sent Field racing away to score.
Nsemba then sent Wardle away for his second try, and as Smith converted from the touchline – one of seven from ten in the game – Brad O’Neill entered the fray for the first time since July after knee surgery.
Wigan were running away it now and Salford could not contain Nsemba as he broke through some poor defending and kept hold of the ball to this time score himself.
They grabbed their fifth try of the afternoon four minutes after the break thanks to a fine run from Field. The fullback took on the Salford defence and outpaced them all before offloading for Liam Marshall to score.
French then showed his pace and strength to break through the defence and score under the posts after good work from O’Neill.
Walters grabbed his first Super League try of the season after he combined with Wardle before dropping on a loose ball to score.
Salford could not contain Walters as he made another break before offloading to Dupree and while the prop did not have the legs to go all the way, the ball was spread to the right with Kruise Leeming, French and Liam Farrell combining to send Zach Eckersley over.
The Red Devils came closest to scoring when Esan Marsters made a break and offloaded to Matty Foster, but he was hauled down by a great tackle from Smith, before Field did the same on Justin Sangaré.
Nsemba thought he had grabbed his second try, but it was ruled out for obstruction as Leeming ran behind Harvie Hill before offloading.
The Red Devils tried hard and refused to give up, but it was Wigan who had the final say with two late tries.
First, Field raced 95 yards unopposed to score, before Wardle rounded off a great team performance with his hat-trick try.
Salford did get over the line at the end through Connell, but he was adjudged to have knocked the ball on first.
GAMESTAR: Junior Nsemba was unplayable at times. He ran and tackled hard for the full 80 minutes, had a hand in two tries and scored one himself.
GAMEBREAKER: Three tries in ten minutes from the Warriors when they were a man down showed how ruthless they could be.
HIGHLIGHT REEL: Jai Field’s run around the outside wrong-footed the Salford defence before offloading for Liam Marshall to score.
ALBERT GOLDTHORPE POINTS
3 pts Junior Nsemba (Wigan)
2 pts Sam Walters (Wigan)
1 pt Jai Field (Wigan)
MATCHFACTS
WARRIORS
1 Jai Field
26 Jacob Douglas
22 Zach Eckersley
4 Jake Wardle
5 Liam Marshall
6 Bevan French
7 Harry Smith
19 Tyler Dupree
17 Kruise Leeming
10 Luke Thompson
11 Junior Nsemba
12 Liam Farrell
13 Kaide Ellis
Subs (all used)
9 Brad O’Neill
15 Patrick Mago
20 Harvie Hill
21 Sam Walters
18th man (not used)
16 Liam Byrne
Also in 21-man squad
23 Tom Forber
24 Jack Farrimond
27 Harvey Makin
Tries: Wardle (10, 26, 79), Field (23, 76), Nsemba (30), Marshall (44), French (48), Walters (51), Eckersley (59)
Goals: Smith 7/10
Sin bin: Dupree (21) – high tackle
RED DEVILS
1 Ryan Brierley
28 Nathan Connell
17 Esan Marsters
45 Jonny Vaughan (D)
40 Josh Wagstaffe
27 Kai Morgan
13 Joe Shorrocks
18 Jack Ormondroyd
41 Finley Yates
10 Chris Hill
15 Shane Wright
22 Matty Foster
43 George Hill (D)
Subs (all used)
19 Justin Sangaré
30 Tiaki Chan
39 James Shields
46 Scott Egan (D)
SCORING SEQUENCE: 4-0, 10-0, 16-0, 22-0; 26-0, 32-0, 36-0, 42-0, 48-0, 54-0
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Warriors: Junior Nsemba; Red Devils: Ryan Brierley
Penalty count: 3-5
Half-time: 22-0
Referee: Chris Kendall
Attendance: 14,262