CURRIE TOO HOT FOR WARRIORS

Ben clinches win

BEN CURRIE made a fairytale return to help keep Warrington’s flickering topeight hopes alive.

He was playing his first match in 10 months after a serious knee injury when the clubs met in last year’s Super 8s.

And he marked his comeback with a crucial second-half try to keep the Wolves clinging to hopes they can avoid the bottom four and a Qualifiers campaign – although that will be their fate if Huddersfield beat Leigh tonight.

Defeat for Wigan, however, is a considerable dent in their topfour hopes. Buoyed by four games without defeat amid the return of a host of key players, Shaun Wane’s men have narrowed the gap in recent weeks.

But this was a significant setback and they could slip further off the pace tonight.

Nine months ago Wigan and Warrington contested the Super League Grand Final, but this game was far from that standard for the most part.

Much of the pre-match focus had centred on Warriors captain Sean O’loughlin becoming only the 11th player in history to make 400 appearances for the club.

Wigan opened the scoring after little more than a minute through Oliver Gildart but that was cancelled out when Benjamin Julien barged his way over.

Wigan regained the lead when O’loughlin’s smart pass gave Leuluai space to break and John Bateman supported to cross

Wolves hit back through Ryan Atkins.

Currie then got in on the act.

A Stefan Ratchford penalty made it 10-14 to the visitors and when Bateman confronted Peta Hiku to turn a Wigan scrum into a Warrington penalty, Ratchford made no mistake.

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