An Awesome Draw
Wigan and Warrington showed their title credentials as they shared the points in a heart-stopping battle on Friday night.
Matty Smith thought he had pinched an emphatic win for Wigan in the 73rd minute with a deftly struck drop-goal but Lee Briers landed one of his own to snatch a draw.
A titanic arm-wrestle involving Warrington wouldn't be complete without a Briers one-pointer and this was the 72nd of his career.
It was the first time the sides have drawn since July 1999, and coincidentally, that game at Wilderspool also finished 17-17.
Warrington began strongly, pressuring Wigan into their own 20 metre area where they had to hold off numerous attacks, save for an Iain Thornley chance after six minutes, when Matty Smith tried to find space with a probing kick.
But the Wolves pressure paid off in the tenth minute when Joel Monaghan stretched his scoring run against Wigan to five consecutive games when he edged over in the corner for the first try.
Wigan gained the lead by responding with two tries, firstly with Josh Charnley finishing a move involving Blake Green and Smith before Ben Flower crashed over just seconds after coming off the bench.
But the Wolves equalised four minutes before half time when Monaghan bagged his second try.
The chance was created by Briers, who booted the ball skyward and Charnley couldn't handle it as it spiraled down.
From the resulting play, the Wolves attack wasted no time in shipping the ball to Mongahan via Briers and Hodgson for the try but the video replay showed Charnley's mistake could've been a result of interference from Ryan Atkins before he came into contact with the ball.
Hodgson uncharacteristically drifted the conversion wide though, leaving the scores locked at 10-10.
From the kick-off, Garreth Carvell had a forgettable couple of minutes when he sloppily lost control of the ball when trying to play it, then conceded a penalty on the next set for swinging an arm at Green.
With the clock running down, Richards opted to knock a penalty over to give the Warriors a two-point advantage at the break.
Warrington wasted no time in snatching back the lead with two minutes of the second half gone. Richie Myler took a sharp pass from Briers and danced around two defenders with ease to score in front of the delirious Wolves following.
That would be the last time they would lead though as Liam Farrell gained a nice reward for a superb all-round display by bagging a try to reset the balance.
The video referee was called into consultation for obstruction but it only took one look before the try was given to set-up a nail-biting finale.
Richards missed the conversion to put Wigan in front again though, leaving the scores at 16-16.
Warrington continued to probe and pressure, backed by their typically boisterous following but Wigan continually held on as tempers reached fever pitch.
With just ten to go, Green fired a strong kick to touch from his own 40 metre area which Hodgson made a hash of to set Wigan up for Smith's one-pointer.
But minutes later, when Wigan could've kicked to touch, the ball ended up being swung back upfield by the Wolves to give Briers the chance to level up the scores, which he took with precision.
Wigan Warriors 17
T - Charnley, Flower, Farrell
G - Richards (2), Smith DG
Warrington Wolves 17
T - J. Monaghan (2), Myler
G - Hodgson (2), Briers DG
Half-Time: 12-10
Attendance: 20050
Wigan Warriors - Sam Tomkins, Josh Charnley, Darrell Goulding, Iain Thornley, Pat Richards, Blake Green, Matty Smith, Gil Dudson, Michael McIlorum, Lee Mossop, Jack Hughes, Liam Farrell, Sean O'Loughlin
Replacements - Ben Flower, Scott Taylor, Sam Powell, Greg Burke
Warrington Wolves - Brett Hodgson, Chris Riley, Rhys Evans, Ryan Atkins, Joel Monaghanm Lee Briers, Richie Myler, Adrian Morley, Michael Monaghan, Chris Hill, Trent Waterhouse, Ben Westwood, Simon Grix
Replacements - Garreth Carvell, Mike Cooper, Micky Higham, Stefan Ratchford
Referee - P Bentham
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