Super League: Wigan Warriors 20-16 Salford Red Devils - hosts score two late tries in comeback win

Bevan French moved from wing to full-back in between scoring two tries in Wigan's victory over Salford

Wigan Warriors left it late as they scored two tries in three minutes to come from behind and seal a Super League win against Salford Red Devils.

Ken Sio touched down to send Salford ahead, and although Bevan French hit back with a try for the hosts, Marc Sneyd's kicking drew the visitors level just before the break.

Brodie Croft then sent a fine lateral pass to Sio to score his second.

But French dummied over for his second and Toby King sealed the win for Wigan.

Wigan remained third in Super League following their victory, which was their fourth from six games this term, while Salford missed the chance to go third themselves.

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Prior to kick-off, there was a minute's silence in memory of former Wigan players Bryn Hargreaves and Brian Dunn.

Hargreaves's body was found earlier this week more than a year after he went missing in the USA while Dunn, who helped the Cherry and Whites win the Challenge Cup in 1985, died at the age of 60.

Wigan took an early lead through Harry Smith's penalty but Sio scored the opening try of the game as he raced onto Ryan Brierley's grubber kick to touch down in the corner.

French dummied and weaved his way through to respond for Wigan just before the half-hour, but Sneyd kicked a penalty goal on the verge of half-time to level the scores.

Wigan coach Matt Peet switched French to full-back after Sio's second try as the hosts looked to respond and he was rewarded with his second try, wrongfooting the Salford back line to dummy his way in.

Salford had looked primed for a third successive win, as well as consigning Wigan to back-to-back home defeats before the hosts' late turnaround inside the final 10 minutes, with King's run in at the corner proving decisive.

Wigan head coach Matt Peet told BBC Radio Manchester:

"We had to do a lot of defending particularly on our goal line. It's all character-revealing and character-building and we certainly looked like a team who turn up for one another.

"Coming from behind, we don't want to keep doing it but it does show some mental toughness.

"With the ball we've got a lot of improvement to do, we need to find our flow and find different ways of playing. We're working on that. Defence wins games and it probably won us this one."

Salford head coach Paul Rowley told BBC Radio Manchester:

"We've got a good team who can play football but we've got a tough team with a lot of character as well.

"Unfortunately we've not got a deep squad and you can see for quite considerable amounts of that game, players were out too long.

"We were limited with our rotation. Wigan, in contrast, have the luxury of being able to switch a winger to full-back, which is going to change a game with special players at special times.

"I've got no complaints about our players, we gave everything we could."

Wigan: Field; French, King, Wardle, Marshall; Cust, Smith; Singleton, Powell, Byrne, Pearce-Paul, Farrell, Smithies.

Interchanges: Ellis, Havard, Cooper, O'Neill.

Salford: Brierley; Sio, Cross, Lafai, Burgess; Croft, Sneyd; Dupree, Bourouh, Sidlow, Watkins, Stone, Addy.

Interchanges: Ormondroyd, Vuniyayawa, Atkin, Wright.

Referee: Chris Kendall

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