- Match Report as Wigan Warriors take victory against Leigh Leopards to retake the lead at the top of the Betfred Super League table.
- The Warriors ran in four first half tries before Harvie Hill added another after half-time, with Lachlan Lam also scoring after the break for Leigh.
- FT | Wigan Warriors 28-06 Leigh Leopards.
Match Report as Wigan Warriors defeat Leigh Leopards in Round 2 of Betfred Super League at The Brick Community Stadium.
Over 13,000 were in attendance for the rescheduled Round 2 matchup, with an electric first-half proving the difference for Matt Peet’s side, who retook the lead at the top of the Betfred Super League table.
Junior Nsemba took the opening try of the game with a brilliant solo effort, before Jake Wardle, Adam Keighran and Patrick Mago added to the Warriors tally in a dominant first 40 minutes. Lachlan Lam responded for the visitors shortly after the break, but with Harvie Hill scoring to swiftly restore the Warriors 22 point lead, a strong half an hour consisting of several defensive efforts was more than enough to see Wigan take the win at The Brick Community Stadium.
Report
It took five minutes for either team to make an impression on the game, with a strong defensive set from the Warriors forcing Leigh half-back Lachlan Lam to kick from 30 metres into his own territory. A strong carry on the following set from Kaide Ellis took Wigan over half-way, before Kruise Leeming’s quick burst from dummy-half was stopped by a high tackle from Jack Hughes, who was sin binned for the offence.
Repeat sets in opposition territory followed for the Warriors, who kept their composure to take the opening points of the game. Junior Nsemba scooped a loose ball off the ground before tip-toeing along the Leigh line, where he found a gap to step inside, beat two defenders and crash over by the posts. Adam Keighran’s conversion was good to open up a six point lead.
With the visitors still down to 12, Leeming continued to bring an electric pace to Wigan’s game from hooker, setting his team up for a promising end to their set 20 metres out. Harry Smith hoisted a kick towards Liam Marshall on the left, but the winger knocked on in attempting to catch the ball near the corner. Another strong series of six succeeded from the Warriors, but Luke Thompson knocking on after a strong carry granted possession back to the Leopards.
However, an almost immediate error of Leigh’s own would be quickly punished by Wigan. Nsemba was again on hand to collect a loose ball, turning his back to set Zach Eckersley away down the left-hand-side. He passed once more to Jake Wardle who played a brilliant one-two with Liam Marshall, with Wardle receiving the ball back in space to score the Warriors’ second try of the game. Keighran’s kick was pulled wide from the conversion, meaning Matt Peet’s side were 10 points to the good with a quarter of the game gone.
With Hughes back on the field and both teams getting through their sets, the game settled momentarily, before an offside call granted Leigh their best opportunity of the half so far – a fresh set of six deep into Wigan territory. The Leopards tried several avenues as Matt Moylan received the ball on the left, but his pass was well anticipated and knocked away by Abbas Miski. The Warriors stood firm once more on the following set, as Edwin Ipape’s grubber kick through the middle was gathered by Smith to end the attack.
Leigh continued to threaten in the following sets, but the Warriors remained more than up to the task in defence to push the visitors back. Umyla Hanley caught a deep kick from Smith and looked to bring the ball out, but a handling error in the tackle with Leeming and Thompson would prove to be costly. Immediately from the scrum, Smith ran round the back of the Warriors pack to receive the ball before playing in a reverse pass to Keighran, who burst through the Leigh defence and past Moylan for the score. He converted his own try from in front of the posts.
With a matter of minutes left on the clock before the break, Patrick Mago, who had made a strong impression on the affair since coming on as an interchange, would extend Wigan’s advantage. Following a Leigh goal-line drop out, the prop forward charged his team forward with a number of powerful carries before receiving the ball from Leeming a couple of yards out, sliding over and grounding for the score. Keighran added another conversion to his growing tally of points on the night, sending the Warriors into half-time at 22-0.
Despite a strong first 40 minutes from Matt Peet’s side, it would be the visitors that were quickest out the blocks. A burst of pace from Kai O’Donnell around half-way saw him race away from the chasing Wigan defence before he offloaded to Lachlan Lam, who was able to ground the ball despite the Warriors’ best efforts to hold him up, with Darnell McIntosh good from the tee.
Adrian Lam’s side continued to threaten early on in the second half, making good territory through a couple of offloads and breaks. Hanley received the ball on the right-hand side in a promising position at the end of one set, but his kick back inside bounced out of the in-goal area to provide some rest-bite for the Warriors. In a similar fashion to that seen in the first half, Eckersley, Wardle and Marshall combined down the left to form an electric break, but some hesitance saw the attack fall short.
Back-to-back sets for Wigan provided an opportunity to get up the field and back on the attacking foot, and the Warriors would make no mistake in resuming their clinical form. After Sam Walters came close to stepping through Leigh’s defensive line, Leeming played a clever kick underneath the posts, with Harvie Hill quickest to ground the ball for the score. Keighran was good once more from the tee to restore the Warriors’ four score advantage.
With an hour gone on the clock, Lam broke the Wigan line to once again pace towards the try-line. As he looked to offload to a teammate on his left shoulder, Miski was on hand once more to fulfil his defensive duties, intercepting the ball and taking to ground. Despite conceding a goal-line dropout in the following tackle, Wigan held their ground once more, as a forward pass denied Josh Charnley of any opportunity to threaten down the left wing.
Following another goal-line dropout courtesy of yet more strong defensive efforts from Miski, the Leopards looked to have turned their pressure into points. Lam sent a looping ball to McIntosh in the corner for an acrobatic effort, but under the tackle of Smith, he was shown to have dropped the ball in attempting to ground it by the video referee, who overturned Chris Kendall’s on-field decision of a try.
With the clash nearing it’s end, the Warriors’ stubborn defence refused to let Leigh through, despite spending a couple of minutes down to 12 men after Smith was forced off with a green card. An alert interception from Wardle to all but confirm victory was the final action of note, as Wigan came home with another big win at The Brick Community Stadium.
Wigan Warriors: Zach Eckersley, Abbas Miski, Adam Keighran, Jake Wardle, Liam Marshall, Ryan Hampshire, Harry Smith, Ethan Havard, Kruise Leeming, Luke Thompson, Junior Nsemba, Liam Farrell, Kaide Ellis.
Interchanges: Patrick Mago, Tyler Dupree, Harvie Hill, Sam Walters.
18th Player: Liam Byrne.
Tries: Nsemba (8′), Wardle (18′), Keighran (34′), Mago (38′), Hill (52′)
Goals: Keighran (4/5).
Leigh Leopards: Matt Moylan, Darnell McIntosh, Umyla Hanley, Ricky Leutele, Josh Charnley, Jack Hughes, Lachlan Lam, Owen Trout, Edwin Ipape, Robbie Mulhern, Kai O’Donnell, Frankie Halton, John Asiata.
Interchanges: Brad Dwyer, Zak Hardaker, Aaron Pene, Matt Davis.
18th Player: Louis Brogan.
Tries: Lam (44′)
Goals: McIntosh (1/1)
Sin Bin: Hughes (7′)
Referee: Chris Kendall.
Attendance: 13,249.
