Roberts stars as Wigan win again

Friday 12th February 2010

Wigan continued their perfect start under new coach Michael Maguire with a comfortable 32-6 victory over Hull KR to top the embryonic Engage Super League table.

Amos Roberts scored two tries for the second successive match to earn the man-of-the-match award but England stand-off Sam Tomkins was the architect of another impressive performance by the Warriors, who started and finished the match at the DW Stadium in total control.

Maguire's men picked up from where they left off in their opening 38-6 rout of Crusaders with full-back Cameron Phelps, a day after celebrating his 25th birthday, causing all the early damage in a whirlwind start.

Roberts, who switched to full-back in the second half, opened the scoring from the wing courtesy of a long pass from Phelps, who then twisted and turned out of tackles to get the supporting Martin Gleeson over for a second.

Rovers then saw some pressure tell when 19-year-old prop forward Liam Watts offloaded from a two-man tackle for fellow substitute Ben Fisher to touch down six minutes before the break.

Prop Andy Coley claimed a try six minutes for the hosts into the half after charging onto Tomkins' short pass, but referee Ian Smith was unsure about the grounding and video official James Child ruled a knock-on.

There was no respite for the visitors, though, and the home side duly extended their lead two minutes later when the ball bounced back off Lee Mossop on the Rovers tryline from Tomkins' kick and loose forward Sean O'Loughlin juggled with it before touching down.

Richards added the goal and then scored his side's fourth try on 55 minutes, collecting Tomkins' high kick to the corner and converting to make it 22-6.

With Mossop causing problems with his powerful running, Wigan finished in total command and ought to have made more of clean breaks by Joel Tomkins and Gleeson before they eventually added to their try tally.

Sam Tomkins was once more the architect, lofting a precision kick which enabled O'Loughlin to send Joel Tomkins over at the corner. Roberts then applied the finishing touches to a commanding display by collecting Dobson's grubber kick and racing 70 metres for a glorious solo try, to which Richards added his fourth goal.