Woeful Toulouse thumped by Wigan as relegation looms

A rampant Wigan Warriors side crossed the line nine times in a 52-6 thrashing of Toulouse Olympique, putting the French outfit on the verge of relegation.

It was a sign of things to come in the early stages of the game. On Toulouse’s first attacking set they threw the ball into touch gifting Wigan some great field possession.

From the resulting scrum the warriors switched it wide to Bevan French who broke down the line. The winger then neatly dinked the ball forwards before regaining possession again to cross for their first of the game.

French would go on to score yet another hat-trick for Wigan as his remarkable form continued to punish Toulouse’s mistakes.

Wigan’s stand out players were certainly those in the key positions. Fullback Jai Field along with the two halfbacks, Cade Cust and Harry Smith, were at the heart of most positive things for the Warriors. It was Cust who sold the Toulouse the defenders a brilliant dummy to cross for Wigan’s second of night inside 10 minutes.

Toulouse showed very little threat in the first half, almost every time they got some good field position they would cough up possession with a silly error, and on the few occasions that they came close to the Warriors line, they were met with some solid defence.

Wigan finished the half with a couple of tries, as the ball started to stick in their hands when applying pressure on the French side. It was Smith who crossed next, followed by Jake Bibby just before the half time hooter to give the home side a 24-0 lead at the break.

The Warriors were not brilliant in the first half, coming up with quite a few errors of their own. However, some solid defence and a touch of class combined to give them a healthy lead.

It wasn’t long into the second half before Field grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck, with the speedster doing what he does best, breaching the Toulouse line before setting up French to go over for his second.

French then quickly got his third after another dropped ball by Toulouse fell right to his feet, allowing him to scoop it up and race 70 metres downfield to all but sink the visitors.

Kai Pearce-Paul then added his name to the scoresheet close to the hour mark, right before the Toulouse bench did have something to cheer. Matty Russell broke free down the left hand side and bulldozed over for a consolation try.

But Wigan’s emphatic second half performance meant they were not finished there. Cust crossed for his second by exploiting some huge holes in Toulouse’s defensive line, before Liam Farrell showed an excellent piece of support play to follow Smith’s break, receive the pass and bring up the half century for his side.

It was Toulouse’s constant errors that really cost them this game. Having said that, the Warriors were very clinical, crossing the line almost every time they had a chance.

The result means that Wigan move to 13 wins from 13 at home this year and are in touching distance of securing a 2^nd place finish.

Toulouse have now lost five on the bounce and are hurtling towards a relegation which could be confirmed next week. They are now six points off 11^th placed Wakefield with three tough games to come.

When the Toulouse boss Sylvain Houles was asked if his side now need some sort of miracle to survive the drop and stay in the division, he responded by saying:

“Yes, you have to be realistic, it’s probably the end of our road now.”

Wigan’s boss Matt Peet was asked what his thoughts were on the match, he responded:

“Professional performance, we got the job done.”

 

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt