All hopes of Harlequins winning at the JJB Stadium last night were banished by David Howell thrusting an elbow into the face of Sam Tomkins, for which the centre was shown the first red card of the season.

Howell’s rush of blood came after Harlequins had replied to Wigan Warriors’ three tries in the opening 11 minutes, Matt Gafa leaping to collect Danny Orr’s crossfield kick. But a player short, the London club succumbed for a second time this year to a vibrant Wigan, who built on an encouraging win against Hull Kingston Rovers on Sunday and consolidated their top-eight place.

Tomkins was none the worse for Howell’s crude intervention. The impressive youngster, together with Thomas Leuluai, the New Zealand scrum half, carved Harlequins apart in an eight-try victory, although Tomkins blotted his copybook by back-chatting to Steve Ganson, the referee, earning him a yellow card late on.

Despite being a man down for an hour, Harlequins laboured hard to post the last try of the match by Luke Gale, after Leuluai had twice spun out of tackles for tries in quick succession and Joel Tomkins, Sam’s brother, had exercised fingertip control to touch down early in the second half.

Wigan began strongly in scoring after 73 seconds, when Phil Bailey’s smart pass and a bustling run by Sean O’Loughlin — before a knee injury prompted his withdrawal — opened the opposition up and George Carmont flicked a pass inside to the supporting Pat Richards, who also landed four conversions.

It was an ominous start and Tomkins directed a superb kick for Mark Riddell to dab the ball down behind the posts. Amos Roberts snatched possession from Will Sharp and Bailey got the ball wide to Karl Pryce, on only the former Bradford Bull’s fifth appearance in two years since returning to rugby league from Gloucester.

Salford City Reds dramatically ended St Helens’s record 16-match winning sequence away from home. Salford, a place off the bottom, beat the league leaders 20-10 at The Willows, with tries by Stefan Ratchford (two), Darrell Goulding and Mark Henry.

Wigan Warriors: Tries: Richards, Riddell, Pryce, Carmont, Roberts, J Tomkins, Leuluai 2. Goals: Richards 4. Harlequins: Tries: Gafa, Gale. Goals: Orr 2.

Wigan Warriors: C Phelps; A Roberts, K Pryce, G Carmont, P Richards; S Tomkins, T Leuluai; A Coley, M Riddell, P Prescott, H Hansen, P Bailey, S O’Loughlin. Interchange: S Fielden, I Paleaaesina, J Tomkins, M McIlorum.

Harlequins: C Melling; J Wells, T Clubb, D Howell, W Sharp; L Gale, D Orr; L McCarthy-Scarsbrook, C Randall, D Ward, L Willamson, K Temata, M Gafa. Interchange: C Robinson, G Haggerty, D Heckenberg, M Gardner.

Referee: S Ganson.