It was an opportunity to convince people they were capable of going the distance. But the truth is that nobody at St James' Park will have left convinced that Wigan Warriors could, or will, win the Grand Final at the end of the season.
And it's not because they were poor. They weren't. If anything, it was one of their better displays of the season. They were gutsy, pugnacious and the ill-discipline that has been their undoing was not existent here.
They completed high and penalties were few and far between. In many ways, this was a positive performance. But the reality is that Wigan only managed to score six points and, if we're honest, rarely did you feel they would score any more than that.
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