The Warriors and Hull KR square off in the Super League game of the season on Friday evening – with the winner taking a huge step towards securing the League Leader’s Shield. The winner of this game takes a huge step towards securing the League Leaders’ Shield. The Warriors take on Hull KR on home soil in Round 25 of Betfred Super League at The Brick Community Stadium in a top of the table clash. It promises to be a mouthwatering occasion between the two best sides in Super League in 2024: and we’ve got you covered every step of the way with our alternative take on Friday night’s coverage. It’s potentially the biggest game of the season tonight, as Super League’s top two go head-to-head with huge ramifications for the remainder of the season.
The visitors started superbly as Matt Parcell crashed over to send them in front on 18 minutes and Mikey Lewis stunned the hosts by touching down five minutes later. This year, it’s incredibly tight at the top again – between Wigan Warriors and Hull KR.
Abbas Miski and Junior Nsemba responded with tries as Wigan made their advantage count after Joe Burgess saw yellow, but Lewis' penalty gave the visitors a four-point lead at the break.
Burgess' try stretched that cushion to 12 points, but a Bevan French effort and Liam Marshall's double swung the game in Wigan's favour and sent them two points clear at the top with just two games of the regular season remaining.
With so much on the line it was unsurprising that the opening stages were so cagey - yet Parcell showed great power to ground the ball on the line for the game's opening score. For a while, Warrington Wolves seemed to be in the race, but defeat to Leigh Leopards, after a red card to Paul Vaughan, put the nail in the coffin for their hopes of finishing top.
Lewis further padded out their tally having wrongfooted the Wigan backline to find space to run through with ease for his 17th try of the season but he sent his kick wide soon after to keep the hosts in touching distance.
Many people dismiss the League Leaders’ Shield as a second-rate trophy, but to win it, you have to be good over the course of an entire campaign.
A high-tempo first half was turned on its head following an intelligent move from Wigan to get themselves out of their own half.
The Cherry and Whites had looked at risk of letting the game move away from them after Lewis' try, but Jai Field's ingenuity and stamina inspired a run from his own half and deep into Hull KR territory.
Out of the last ten seasons, the League Leaders’ Shield winners have gone on to win the Grand Final on just four occasions.
Burgess went in late into the tackle that thwarted Field's run and held him down to earn a spell in the sin bin - and the yellow card proved decisive, aiding Wigan's recovery.
However, the last two winners of the Shield – St Helens and Wigan Warriors – both won the Grand Final the same year.
Miski dived in at the corner before Nsemba weaved through a hole in the visitors' defence to really get the hosts going - but Adam Keighran's wayward kicking meant the Robins still kept a slender lead while down to 12.
St Helens in 2019 were absolutely dominant, and did win the Grand Final, but Castleford Tigers in 2017 were comfortable Shield winners and were defeated by Leeds Rhinos at Old Trafford – a side that finished ten points below them.
Peta Hiku almost scored an audacious crossfield try having intercepted French's loose pass but the Hull KR centre chose to offload to Burgess who atoned for his earlier yellow card to put the visitors into what seemed a commanding 20-8 lead.
Leeds Rhinos have even won it from finishing fifth in the regular season, showing that quality over the entire campaign isn’t as important as it seems.
Undeterred, French inspired a stunning response, chasing his own neat kick to go in and bring Wigan to within six points.
Ultimately, it seems that the Grand Final winners aren’t necessarily the best team from across a season – but rather sides in particularly good form, or that perform on the big occasion.
Once again, Hull KR's indiscipline proved their undoing and Wigan were given a further advantage when Jai Whitbread caught Tyler Dupree with his shoulder to earn himself 10 minutes in the bin.
Both the play-offs and the regular season provide insight into different qualities of sides, but the title of Super League champion merely goes to those that excel in the play-offs.
That yellow card proved particularly costly as Wigan took control. Marshall put in a fine finish, first to level the scores and then notch the game-winning try in much the same fashion in the closing stages.
Headed into the end-of-season run-in before the play-offs begin later in September, Wigan face Leeds and Salford in their final two games, while Hull KR take on Leigh and Leeds.
Wigan Warriors boss Matt Peet told BBC Radio Manchester:
“It was a fantastic game. Even when we were behind I thought: 'These are the games you want to be part of'.
“I thought there were spells where Hull KR were the better team. We had to fix a few things which I thought we did in the second half - we did some excellent stuff with the ball and we were free-flowing, structured, unstructured and those are the kinds of games that will get people watching rugby league.
“We got there in defence in the end but I thought some stuff in the first half was way below par.”
Hull KR head coach Willie Peters told BBC Radio Humberside:
“Naturally the players are disappointed. They put a lot of effort into that game.
“We got in front and probably should have closed the game out. We were down to 12 men twice and that hurt us.
“We went more than toe-to-toe. They'll be looking over their shoulder that's for sure. We were in a really strong position in that game. We'll look forward to playing them again hopefully further down the track because 13 on 13 I thought we played extremely well.”
Wigan: Field; Miski, Keighran, Wardle, Marshall; French, Smith; Havard, Leeming, Thompson, Nsemba, Farrell, Ellis.
Interchanges: Byrne, Mago, Dupree, Forber.
Hull KR: Broadbent; Burgess, Hiku, Gildart, Hall; May, Lewis; Sue, Parcell, Whitbread, Hadley, Batchelor, Minchella.
Interchanges: Litten, Luckley, Storton, Tanginoa.
Referee: Jack Smith.
