Having been on the back foot early on, the Warriors took the lead in the ninth minute as last season’s leading try-scorer Abbas Miski finished out wide for an unconverted try, although Nathan Cleary put the Panthers ahead with a converted score on 27 minutes.
Wigan hit back through Kruise Leeming, yet it was the NRL champions who led 12-10 at half-time thanks to a converted Dylan Edwards try. However, centre Wardle’s converted try restored the lead in the second half after the video referee deemed he had grounded the ball while being tackled.
There was drama right to the last though as the video referee was called to adjudicate on whether Taylan May had scored on the last play of the game, but ruled there was insufficient evidence to overturn the on-field call of ‘no try’ to see Wigan crowned club world champions for a fifth time
It was a night for Wigan to add to their list of previous title wins – the most recent of which came in 2017 – and all of which were recalled in a pre-match presentation that saw representatives of all four of those illustrious sides parading their silverware.
