Bevan French provided the touch of class Wigan have sorely lacked in his absence in recent weeks as they reclaimed second place in the Betfred Super League by thrashing Wakefield 44-2.

Wigan’s hopes of retaining the League Leaders’ Shield have faded after four defeats in eight matches with French, the 2023 Steve Prescott Man of Steel, missing the last seven because of a calf injury.

But he marked his return with a try – his 100th in Super League – and had a big hand in three others in a comprehensive win that takes the Warriors back above St Helens, four points behind leaders Hull KR.

French’s last appearance had been on June 20 in a 16-10 reverse at Wakefield, who were bidding for a first victory at the Brick Community Stadium since 2017 to break into the top-six play-off spots.

Trinity, though, made a number of handling errors and struggled to impose themselves from the off as Wigan, seeking to bounce back from last week’s bruising defeat by Hull KR, started strongly.

French set up the first try for Adam Keighran after 16 minutes and then chased his own low punt to score the second eight minutes later, after the ball bounced off the post and back into his hands.

French was then the architect of Wigan’s third just after the half hour mark as he spotted a gap in Wakefield’s defence and then offloaded to Liam Farrell, who in turn teed up Zach Eckersley.

Max Jowitt’s penalty on the hooter got Wakefield in the board but they were unable to chalk up any second-half points as Eckersley, Junior Nsemba, Jay Field, Liam Marshall and Sam Walters touched down for a dominant Wigan.

Flanagan stars as Huddersfield beat play-off chasing Warrington

Elsewhere, George Flanagan’s late double sealed Huddersfield a 23-10 win against Warrington to all but end the visitors’ play-off hopes.

The Giants’ full-back went in for two crucial tries and also landed three conversions for a 14-point haul as Huddersfield notched just their sixth win of the season.

Warrington centres Connor Wrench and Toby King scored first-half tries, after Huddersfield had opened the scoring through wing Aidan McGowan, to give the Wolves a 10-6 interval lead.

But after Jacob Gagai’s second-half try had drawn Huddersfield level, man of the match Flanagan raced in for decisive scores, which sandwiched Oliver Russell’s drop-goal, to leave Warrington five points adrift of sixth-placed Hull with four games to play.

One of Huddersfield’s five previous wins during a disappointing season was against Warrington, who they beat 24-16 at the Halliwell Jones Stadium in June.

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