Jai Field's try against Wakefield was his 15th in Super League this season
Tries: French, Marshall 2, Field Goals: Keighran 5
Jai Field scored a length-of-the-field try to send Wigan Warriors top of the Super League table with a hard-fought victory against Wakefield Trinity.
Two quickfire tries from Liam Marshall after Bevan French opened the scoring for Wigan helped put the hosts 20-0 up at break.
And after Corey Hall hit back for Wakefield in the second half, Field hit the visitors on the counter-attack when they spilled the ball just metres short of the try-line as they searched for a second score and a way back into the game.
While Ky Rodwell managed to pull another try back soon after, Wigan confirmed a club-record 12th successive Super League win that edged them above Leeds Rhinos at the summit as Wakefield remain in fourth.
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How the table looks could change drastically by the end of the weekend, with Leeds able to reclaim top spot if they beat York Knights on Sunday, while a third successive Trinity loss has them in danger of dropping to fifth on Saturday if defending champions Hull KR beat Toulouse Olympique.
Both sides had early chances to take the lead, but French was the reason that neither of them managed to open the scoring in the first 10 minutes.
First the Australian wasted a golden opportunity to send Zach Eckersley over with a forward pass, but within two minutes he came up with a stunning try-saving intervention at the other end by holding Max Jowitt up over the line before the full-back was controversially judged to lose the ball in his attempt to touchdown.
Eventually, it was French himself who broke the deadlock, pouncing on a stray Wakefield pass inside his own half before sprinting 65 metres untouched to go in near to the posts.
Two tries in five minutes from Marshall out wide put Warriors in a commanding position before the half-hour mark.
Wakefield head coach Daryl Powell called on Emre Guler for the first time soon after that, with the prop coming off the bench just two days after his move from NRL side St George Illawarra Dragons was brought forward by Trinity.
It was only five days ago that Guler, who had been due to make his Super League move next season, had started for the Dragons in their win against Wests Tigers.
Wakefield threatened to respond a number of times before Hall plucked a searching high ball from Jake Trueman from the sky to dot down for the visitors in the 53rd minute.