Jake Mamo stars with three tries as Wire sweep aside Warriors at the DW

Warrington Wolves’ centre Jake Mamo starred at the DW stadium as he grabbed a hat trick to help defeat Wigan Warriors by a scoreline of 14-40 in their own backyard.

With the Wire since 2019, Mamo grabbed his first of the night on the 15-minute mark, capitalising on some poor decision making by Oliver Gildart on the last tackle to intercept an attempted pass close to his own tryline and run the length of the field to score one of his own.

Then came the second just after the interval, more or less a carbon copy of the first but with less legwork to do for Mamo this time. Harry Smith’s attempted pass 20m out coming off the fingertips of the Australian and into the air allowing him to take the ball in his grasp and set off down the field. Once again, there was no stopping him.

If that wasn’t enough, there was time for a third just before the end and oncemore Mamo remained switched on to capitalise on some poor play by a now desperate Wigan side. Having attempted a short kick from a goal-line drop out, the Warriors saw three men beaten in the air by Mamo just 10m out and with nobody in front of him, the Wire man had the simple task of going in under the posts unchallenged.

Having picked up the Man of the Match award, Mamo was praised highly by Warrington head coach Steve Price post-match.

“He brings that energy to training on a daily basis and that’s why I enjoy coaching him. He’s a good person making a good fist of it within our team.

“Jake is a valuable member of our team, all of the boys love him because he brings a ‘point of difference’ so to speak and that’s what makes him so special. He has a huge amount of speed, as we’ve seen tonight, but I was equally as impressed with his defensive actions.

“Our whole right edge was outstanding. We had to be really solid over there because Wigan are really strong on the left.”

In scoring the three tries, the 27-year-old became the first Wire player to ever score a hat-trick against the Warriors in Super League. Only Wigan’s Dom Manfredi (2015 & 2016) and Liam Marshall (2017) have ever completed the feat in 63 previous meetings.

That said, as boss Price touched on, Mamo’s defensive display at the DW was also impressive. Much of the Warriors play came down the left with Liam Marshall and Liam Farrell too, but neither of those had much luck thanks to the Australian and his teammates.

Only once did Wigan break through to score on that side of the pitch – Oliver Gildart’s try – but in all honesty, Mamo couldn’t have done much about it as the Warriors man was first to the ball ahead of one of his teammates in the in-goal area.

Regardless, picking up a first win away at Wigan since July 2017 can only increase Wire’s confidence, and they now comfortably sit third in the league table with Leeds Rhinos up next on Monday.

If they are to be successful come the end of this campaign, and lift the coveted Grand Final trophy, then they will need Mamo to keep firing as he has been doing, but at the same time will have to hope that he is still with the club come the start of the 2022 season.

Much has been made about his future of late, contracted until the end of this campaign but strongly linked with a move away to Castleford Tigers. Mamo himself admitted last night post-match that he knows where he will be playing his rugby, but can’t reveal it just yet.

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