Wildcats snatch dramatic win

David Solomona's last-minute try maintained Official English Super League Round 22 game report - Friday 22 July 2005. Full time: Wigan Warriors 28 Wakefield Wildcats 34.

Wildcats snatch dramatic win

Wakefield?s recent resurgence under Tony Smith as they snatched a 34-28 victory in a pulsating engage Super League clash at Wigan.

Two tries apiece from half-backs Danny Orr and Dennis Moran looked to have given the Warriors the points only for Solomona to put Rob Spicer over late on and crash over himself in the dying seconds.

After trailing to an early Moran try, the Wildcats hit back to lead at half-time thanks to two tries from Colum Halfpenny and a further score from Sam Obst.

Wigan rallied in the second half but this was Wakefield's night as they recorded their first win at Wigan in the Super League era.

Wigan had welcomed back Kris Radlinski, Kevin Brown, Brett Dallas and Jerry Seuseu to the starting side ? for Brown it was the second piece of good news in a matter of hours, having penned a new two-year contract on Friday morning.

The Wildcats were without the influential Jamie Rooney, with Ben Jeffries and Obst again providing the threat at half-back.

Jeffries was another to have pledged his future to his club, the ink barely dry on a three-year deal as he became the third Wakefield player this week, after Solomona and Semi Tadulala, to commit to the club.

The opening skirmishes were lively with Wigan asking many of the questions but Wakefield coming up with some punishing defence.

The Warriors did break through on 12 minutes though as a lovely move involving Godwin, Orr and Harrison Hansen resulted in Moran flying over under the posts to leave Danny Tickle with the easiest of conversions.

Trinity were level shortly after when they broke down the centre of the field and full-back Halpenny took a reverse ball from Obst and produced a beautiful sidestep to wrong-foot his opposite number Radlinski and score.

Moments later the visitors were ahead with a very similar touchdown, Obst again breaking through the middle and offloading to Halpenny, who this time stepped inside Steve Wild to leave David March with another easy kick for a 12-6 lead.

Halpenny almost went from hero to villain on the half-hour mark, as he allowed an Orr kick to roll into the in-goal area before just getting the touch with Dallas sticking around.

The respite was only brief as on the next set Moran put through another kick and Orr came through in support to ground under the posts, Tickle's conversion making it 12-12.

That looked to be the interval score before Obst touched down after a scrappy passage of play although March missed a conversion to leave the gap at four points.

The Wildcats extended their advantage to 10 points on 51 minutes when Jeffries cut through the defence and Radlinski was unable to get across in time, March converting for a 22-12 lead.

However Jeffries undid some of his good work seconds later when he threw a long ball out that was picked off by Moran and the little scrum-half ran 80 metres to touch down, Tickle's goal reducing the gap again to four points.

The Warriors hit the front on the hour mark as Orr kicked through and Tickle won the race for the ball, with his conversion making it 24-22. And moments later Orr was on the end of a cross-field kick from Moran that extended the advantage to six points.

However, back came Wakefield and Solomona's break created the opening for Spicer to cross under the sticks, March's goal a mere formality to lock the scores at 28-28.

There was still drama to come as Solomona crashed through several Wigan defenders for a try which was given, eventually, by the video referee despite referee Karl Kirkpatrick having seemingly called held.

Wigan: Radlinski, Dallas, Brown, Wild, Aspinwall, Orr, Moran, Hargreaves, Godwin, Seu Seu, Allen, Tickle, Hansen. Replacements: Sculthorpe, Newton, Guisset, Gleeson.

Wakefield: Halpenny, Wainwright, Demetriou, Domic, Tadulala, Jeffries, Obst, Griffin, March, Korkidas, Solomona, MacGillivray, J. Field. Replacements: Spicer, Wrench, Elima, Snitch.

Wigan: (12) 28. Tries: Moran 2, Orr 2, Tickle. Goals: Tickle 4.

Wakefield: (16) 34. Tries: Halpenny 2, Obst, Jeffries, Spicer, Solomona. Goals: March 5.

Referee: Karl Kirkpatrick (Warrington)

Att: 9,021

Thanks to www.superleague.co.uk for the above review