Wigan squandered a 16-0 lead against 12-man Widnes as the new Super League season kicked off with a dramatic 22-22 draw on Thursday.

Although underdogs Widnes played most of the match a man down after Patrick Ah Van was sent off for a high tackle on England winger Josh Charnley, they showed impressive tenacity to earn a share of the spoils against one of the pre-season favourites for the Super League title.

The draw was all the more remarkable as Widnes lost influential playmaker Kevin Brown with a concussion after only 22 minutes following a heavy tackle from Ryan Sutton.

Anthony Gelling marked his 50th appearance with two of Wigan’s four tries, but they failed to register only their fifth win in their last 14 opening-day matches.

Shaun Wane’s side lost Charnley with a facial injury and it was a miserable night for his Sydney-bound winger Joe Burgess, who fluffed a glorious try-scoring opportunity on 23 minutes and then gifted a try to Widnes half-back Joe Mellor with a second fumble five minutes before half-time.

Danny Tickle added the conversion to trim Wigan’s lead to 16-6 and the margin was just four points when Mellor’s grubber kick deceived full-back Matty Bowen and full-back Rhys Hanbury followed up to score his side’s second try.

The visitors were rocking at that stage but Joel Tomkins, who had earlier pounced on Matty Smith’s towering kick to score the first try of the season, put Burgess over on 55 minutes, shortly after having one disallowed for a knock-on.

Gelling was denied a hat-trick by a blatant forward pass by Bowen and Wigan then lost their way in the last 10 minutes.

Centre Cameron Phelps went over 15 minutes from the end to keep his side’s hopes alive and Chris Dean crashed over by the posts with just three minutes to go.

Stefan Marsh was wide with his first attempt but landed the one from in front of the posts to tie the score.