Former England captain Sean O’Loughlin will get the chance to bring down the curtain on his glorious career in the Super League decider after Wigan eased their way past Hull 29-2 in the first semi-final at DW Stadium.
The Warriors skipper was drafted in for only his seventh match of 2020 and he played his part as the Warriors secured a record-equalling 11th grand final appearance.
O’Loughlin, who turns 38 next Tuesday, will play a 459th game for his home-town club in next week’s season-ender at KCOM Stadium against the winners of Friday’s second semi-final between St Helens and Catalans Dragons.
It proved to be a game too far for Hull yet they began full of confidence, on the back of four straight wins, and put former Parramatta Eels fullback Bevan French under all sorts of pressure through a clever kicking game.
The game appeared to turn on the decision of referee Chris Kendall to penalise Hull centre Josh Griffin for patting prop Oliver Partington on the head as the Black and Whites were forced to forfeit a promising attacking position.
From being a tight contest, Wigan suddenly found a purple patch to run in two tries in seven minutes to seize control and leave their opponents floundering in disbelief.
Winger Joe Burgess went over on the overlap following a strong run from centre Zak Hardaker and then put in a grubber kick for halfback Harry Smith to touch down.
Hardaker kicked both conversions and Smith slotted over a field goal on the stroke of halftime to make it 13-2.
The game slipped further away from Hull four minutes into the second half when old-stagers O’Loughlin and experienced Kiwi international Thomas Leulaui combined to find French and his inside pass got Hardaker racing away for Wigan’s third try.
Hull’s last chance to get back into the game disappeared when French pulled off a brilliant try-saving tackle to deny Marc Sneyd in full flight and hooker Danny Houghton had a try disallowed before Wigan wrapped up the victory with two further tries in the last six minutes.
French put winger Jake Bibby over in the corner and then the man from Tingha in New South Wales crossed himself in the 78th minute for the 13th try of his first full Super League campaign.
