Bevan French scored a brace of tries as Wigan maintained their unbeaten home record in 2022 with a 30-10 victory over St Helens and denied their arch rivals the chance to secure the League Leaders’ Shield on their own turf.
Former captain Andy Farrell was among the 19,210 crowd at the DW Stadium to witness a ruthless victory that enabled his old club to guarantee a top-two finish and a home semi-final in the play-offs.
Saints were already 80 minutes away from a fourth successive Grand Final appearance and, despite an uncharacteristically error-strewn defeat, can still clinch top spot by winning one of their last two games of the regular season.
Wigan were once more indebted to Australian try machines French and Jai Field, who took their combined tally for the season to 49, but coach Matt Peet will be equally pleased with a defence that restricted the champions to just two second-half tries from Joey Lussick and Joe Batchelor.
Leeds claimed a dramatic 18-14 victory over Huddersfield to extend their winning run to six matches.
Stand-off Blake Austin scored the all-important try three minutes from the end to deny the Giants a first away win for two months. The visitors also finished with 11 men as forwards Chris Hill and Joe Greenwood were sin-binned for foul play.
Castleford maintained their push for a play-off spot with a stunning second-half comeback to earn a thrilling 19-18 win over Warrington at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.
The Tigers produced an error-strewn first half and were lucky to be trailing by just 12-0 at the break, but Danny Richardson inspired a second-half comeback as he created tries for Jake Mamo and Derrell Olpherts and kicked three goals and a drop-goal.
Salford Red Devils gave their play-off hopes a huge boost as they also recovered from a half-time deficit to beat injury-hit Hull FC 28-18 at the AJ Bell Stadium.
Kallum Watkins, Rhys Williams, Ken Sio, Ryan Brierley and Deon Cross all scored for Paul Rowley's men while Marc Sneyd kicked four goals against his former club.
Toulouse were relegated from Super League following a 24-14 defeat to French neighbours Catalans Dragons at Stade Ernest Wallon.
Catalans were desperate for points in their play-off push and in no mood to do Toulouse a favour, with Fouad Yaha scoring a hat-trick of tries in just 25 minutes.
Toulouse reduced their deficit to 12-8 at the interval but Gil Dudson and Tyrone May crossed in the second half to effectively put the result beyond doubt.
That result ensured Wakefield's safety and Trinity celebrated with a hard-fought 18-6 victory over Hull KR at Belle Vue.
The home side trailed 6-0 at the interval but clinched a fourth win in their last five matches thanks to second-half tries from Lee Kershaw, Lewis Murphy and Max Jowitt.
Results:
- Leeds 18 Huddersfield 14
- Toulouse 14 Catalans 24
- Wakefield 18 Hull KR 6
- Salford 28 Hull FC 18
- Warrington 18 Castleford 19
- Wigan 30 St Helens 10
