Rugby league roundup: Wigan coach Shaun Wane angry over loss to Bulls

Wigan’s angry coach, Shaun Wane, claimed that his side “got what they deserved” when they slumped to a shock defeat against relegated Bradford Bulls.

The Warriors were out of sorts in their 16-8 loss, a result which leaves them four points behind the Super League leaders St Helens with only four games remaining.

It was tough for Wane to take but he conceded the best team won. “I’m angry and disappointed, but I must commend Bradford. They were the best team and they fully deserved their win,” he said. “We got what we deserved, absolutely, straight between our eyes. We have to be mentally tougher and I know we can perform a lot better than that.

“That’s down to me as the head coach – it was far from acceptable but we know that. We turned up with the wrong attitude and got what we deserved. But we’ll bounce back and we’ll be ready for Salford [on Thursday]. We normally don’t give many penalties away but we did today when we defended because we were loose. l

“I don’t want to take anything away from Bradford. It’s sad what has happened to them but they deserved it today.”

Tries from Danny Williams, Joe Arundel and Matty Blythe ensured Bradford claimed their first victory since the beginning of June, with two from Dom Manfredi the only consolation for Wigan.

The Bulls are playing for pride in the remaining rounds of the season, but their coach James Lowes – who grabbed his first win as head coach with the result – said it was no less than his squad deserved after a tough week in training.

“I’m not delighted for myself – I’m delighted for the boys. They’ve worked extremely hard since I’ve been at the club and I’m overjoyed for them. It’s not about me, because some of the stuff we’ve done in training paid off in a big way,” Lowes said. “Defensively they worked so hard for each other, and that’s a lot to do with what we do in training. You need belief in yourself, and the efforts they’ve put in through training have been second to none, and that’s how you build belief. You get self-confidence and that grows through you.

“There’s still a couple of occasions where we were just a bit loose, particularly on Wigan’s line. But the other side of that was how hard they hard to work in defence, and they really did. That’s down to them, and down to their efforts each and every day in training.

“We spoke about not throwing the towel in – we know where we are now and some of the lads don’t really know what’s happening with their rugby next year. We were tested on plenty of occasions again today but we stood up really well and I could see a performance like that coming today.”

Huddersfield took a hold on their place in the top six with a 38-16 win over Catalan Dragons but the coach Paul Anderson is setting his sights even higher. The Giants ran in seven tries to three against the seventh-placed Dragons as they took advantage of surprise defeats for Wigan and Warrington, two of the five clubs above them, to maintain their challenge for a maiden Grand Final appearance.

“There is everything to play for,” Anderson said. “We want to be in that top four, we still want to finish top if that’s possible.”

Huddersfield, who were last year’s league leaders, never looked back after running in three tries in the first 18 minutes through Kyle Wood, Aaron Murphy and Jermaine McGillvary.

It was the 100th try of McGillvary’s career, on his 100th Super League appearance, and he went on to add a second after the break as Huddersfield won at a canter.

“It was disappointing conceding 16 points but, in the first half, apart from one little misread on our tryline, I thought we were pretty good defensively,” Anderson added.

“Catalan are a good team but our effort and endeavour was good.”

The Dragons’ French international full-back Morgan Escaré scored his 21st Super League try of the season but it came too late to save his side from a comprehensive defeat.

The Catalan coach, Laurent Frayssinous, admits the result virtually ends their hopes of a home tie in the play-offs and remains concerned over their dismal away form.

The Dragons have lost just twice in Perpignan this year but their only away wins have been come at the expense of relegated duo Bradford and London Broncos.

“We deserved to win at Leeds and we lost in the last minute at Wigan so we have produced some decent performances away but not enough consistently,” Frayssinous said.

“Our performances are not good enough away from Perpignan. Today it was seven versus six and the way they won the games was pretty disappointing.

“We need to keep on learning and today was a very good lesson because we took some short cuts.

“Instead of staying to the game plan and playing tough, we tried to score from anywhere and we couldn’t put any pressure on Huddersfield.”

Elsewhere, Chris Riley scored a hat-trick of tries against parent club, Warrington, as Wakefield kept their top-eight hopes alive with a 40-26 victory. Riley, who has been on loan at Belle Vue after playing for Warrington in their opening game of the season, crossed twice in the first half and added another after the interval to stun the Wolves.

Richie Mathers, another ex-Warrington player, scored the Wildcats’ sixth try to seal a deserved win for Wakefield – their first against the Wolves in 10 attempts.

Rugby league roundup: Wigan coach Shaun Wane angry over loss to Bulls