Wakefield Trinity 26-40 Wigan Warriors
Wigan’s coach, Brian Noble, has spent much of the Super League season trying to control the expectation generated by the emergence of two exciting teenage talents, Shaun Ainscough and Sam Tomkins, but they are not making it easy for him.
Ainscough was not supposed to be playing here but capitalised on a late call-up from the reserve team when the Samoan centre George Carmont was struck down by tonsillitis, scoring four bustling tries that make him the leading Super League scorer this season with 13 from nine appearances. Yet he was also found wanting defensively by Wakefield’s inventive scrum-half, Danny Brough, when the game was in the balance, showing why Noble may omit him from next Saturday’s derby against St Helens at Murrayfield if Carmont is available.
“He’s got superb prowess – he’s strong, he’s quick and he knows how to finish,” said Noble. “But there’s no doubt he’s still a work in progress.”
Wakefield’s coach, John Kear, even nominated Ainscough as a bolter for the England team that will face France in June and although that remains a long shot, no wing has generated a buzz like this in Wigan since Jason Robinson first appeared almost two decades ago.
Tomkins, a half-back so wiry he looks like he might snap in a hard tackle, has been dropped to the interchange bench for the last couple of matches. However, he still made a significant contribution to Wigan’s win by setting up Ainscough’s fourth try but Noble’s selection had already been fully justified by the controlling performance of Tim Smith, the Australian who has replaced him in the starting team.
Smith directed the attack for four tries down Wakefield’s hapless right flank, with Cameron Phelps scoring the first before Ainscough claimed a hat-trick in 18 minutes. Wigan, however, continued to make sloppy errors that kept Trinity in the game.
Pat Richards gifted one try to Brough, who then intercepted a crazy pass from Martin Gleeson for his second, and when Blanch rose above Ainscough to score his second in the 45th minute, somehow Wakefield were leading 26–22. Smith restored Wigan’s lead with a clever kick to set up a second try for Phelps, before further scores from Ainscough and Gleeson completed a scoreline that more accurately reflected a funny old match.
The teams will meet again in a Challenge Cup tie on Saturday week and the word among the Wigan players as they left the ground was that Brough may no longer be a Wakefield player by then. However Trinity’s chairman Ted Richardson denied any knowledge of a possible move to Huddersfield for Scotland’s World Cup captain, pointing out that he still has two years remaining on his Wakefield contract.
Wakefield Trinity Blaymire; Blanch, S Gleeson, Atkins, Grix; Martin, Brough; Wilkes, Drew, Snitch, Pitts, Ferguson, Demetriou. Interchange Sculthorpe, Obst, Henderson, Moore.
Wigan Warriors Richards; Roberts, M Gleeson, Phelps, Ainscough; Smith, Leuluai; Fielden, Riddell, Coley, Hock, Bailey, O’Loughlin. Interchange Paleaaesina, J Tomkins, Prescott, S Tomkins.
Referee B Thaler (Wakefield).