Wigan vs Warrington Las Vegas: Warriors maul Wolves in Super League opener as Bevan French stars

Wigan have thumped rivals Warrington in Las Vegas which broke new ground as the first Super League game to be played in the United States.

The historic encounter at the Allegiant Stadium on Sunday (AEDT) saw Matt Peet’s defending champions go 24-0 up at halftime after tries from Tyler Dupree, Abbas Miski, Bevan French and Harry Smith.

The Warriors added further scores after the break through Jai Field, Jake Wardle and Luke Thompson, with Adam Keighran converting all seven tries to make it 42-0 before the hour mark.

Warrington grabbed consolation tries through Arron Lindop, James Harrison, Matt Dufty and Matty Ashton while Liam Marshall scored late on for Wigan and Keighran ended with eight goals.

For Wolves boss Sam Burgess, whose arrival in Las Vegas earlier this week was delayed by visa complications, this was a massive disappointment.

It was his team’s first defeat of the season as Wigan, last season’s quadruple winners, backed up their 46-4 victory at Hull FC last week with another huge victory.

Around 10,000 English fans were in the crowd for the first part of a quadruple header involving two NRL fixtures and women’s Test match between England and the Australia Jillaroos.

Warrington thought they had opened the scoring when captain George Williams sent a high, hanging kick inside the left channel for Toby King to touch down before referee Chris Kendall signalled a try, although the score was reviewed by video referee Liam Moore.

Moore deemed that King had stripped the ball from Keighran and a penalty was awarded to Wigan, who went close themselves moments later when Marshall dived over to score in the left corner.

Kendall awarded a try before going to the video referee, who chalked it off for the winger dropping the ball as he dived over.

But Wigan opened the scoring in the 17th minute when Dupree went over from close range before Miski’s acrobatic finish saw him dive over in the right corner six minutes later.

In the 28th minute, the talismanic French found space to go over and the Warriors had their fourth shortly before halftime.

Smith swapped passes superbly with halfback partner French to cross the line and Keighran’s fourth goal made it 24-0.

The procession continued after the break when Marshall’s neat pass sent Field racing over and try number six came when Wardle touched down after fine work from the mercurial French.

Thompson added number seven in the 54th minute after more classy play from French and Keighran’s conversion stretched the lead to 42-0.

Warrington were stunned, but they came back when Lindop touched down a kick from Williams and then Harrison went over from close range before Dufty crossed, with Josh Thewlis converting all three scores.

Marshall went over in the left corner and Keighran kicked his eight conversion from as many attempts, before Ashton scored a superb long-range interception effort converted by Thewlis.