Wigan takes battle of giants

Press, 9 October 1987, Page 32

Wigan takes battle of giants

NZPA-AAP Wigan The Sydney rugby league champion, Manly, failed to dent the English champion, Wigan, at Wigan yesterday, losing 2-8 in their world club challenge match. A capacity crowd of 38,895 came to watch this one-off struggle between the English and New South Wales premiers. Manly brought every ounce of its defensive skill to Wigan-Park Stadium, but lacked any real firepower after the forty-fifth-minute send-off of the lock, Ron Gibbs.

A brilliant attacking last quarter hour came too late against the Wigan side, which seemed to have more to play for as the game went on. Both sides had points on the board from penalties in the first five minutes; Mike O’Connor for Manly after a Wigan off-side, and David Stephenson for Wigan after a Malcolm Cochrane foul tackle. The referee, John Holdsworth, had his bands full with minor fouls from both sides. Manly’s Cliff Lyons was the first to visit the sin-bin after 21 minutes.

Two minutes later Wigan went 4-2 up after Dale Shearer was penalised. Within five minutes of the restart. Manly was down to 12 men when Gibbs was dismissed for a late high tackle on Joe Lydon. The Sea Eagles defence continued to hold in spite of everything Wigan could throw at it, and once they adjusted to 12-man rugby league they started to exercise more power in their game. There were increasingly assured performances from Mike O’Connor, Dale Shearer and Paul Vautin.