Saturday 31st July 10

Wigan Warriors assistant coach Shaun Wane found plenty to work on despite seeing his side beat Engage Super League champions Leeds Rhinos 26-12 last night.

Wane, in charge while coach Michael Maguire is attending his father’s funeral in Australia, was unimpressed by aspects of Wigan’s defence at Headingley Carnegie.

First-half scores from Thomas Leuluai and George Carmont put the Warriors in command but Chris Clarkson halved the deficit when he crashed over on the stroke of half-time.

Keith Senior continued the fightback after the break, but two Pat Richards penalties plus further tries from Harrison Hansen and Martin Gleeson gave the Cherry and Whites their first win at Leeds since 2008.

Wane, whose side beat Hull FC 46-0 last time out, said: "Last week the nil scoreline was great. I'm into my defence and the disappointing thing today was the 12 points they scored.

"But we'll have a good look at that - it'll be a tough video session on Monday. We hound them about performing to their best all the time and they've ground out a good win, but those 12 points niggle in the back of my mind."

The former prop who, from 1990, had three seasons as a player at Headingley, has enjoyed his short stint at the helm and said: “I've loved it. I'm Wigan born and bred. To coach my hometown club, even though I've only been caretaker while Madge is away, it's been fantastic.

"The lads have responded really well. I do things slightly different to Madge and they've loved it. We wanted two quality wins and these two wins are for Madge."

Wane also revealed that although the league leaders are still a work in progress, they are getting pretty close to where he and Maguire want them to be.

"This year we've been working on getting an inner-toughness in the team," he said. "We're getting there. It's a big job but we're slowly getting there. To show character like we did today. That's part of showing toughness within the team.”

While the Warriors put one hand on the league leaders' shield, defeat for the Rhinos makes their task of finishing fourth a tougher one.

Coach Brian McClennan, who put his side's defeat down to an inability to turn possession into points, said: "I don't think we executed well; they executed a lot better than us.

“For a period, even when we were down by eight, our kicking game fell away there. All-in-all I just thought we lost the ruck area a little bit; they are very strong in that area.

"They are very strong in the wrestle and we lost quite a bit of possession there, trying to get up and play the ball quicker, through poor technique and poor grip.

"It's something we've got to practice. It’s par for the course; we'll make sure we get better at it too.”