Friday 30 January 2026

Halliwell Jones Stadium (7:30pm)

Warrington Wolves 16-12 Leigh Leopards

Leopards’ only warm up game ahead of the 2026 season ended in a narrow defeat on a rainy night at the Halliwell Jones Stadium as Joe Philbin’s late try sealed a highly competitive and often feisty encounter in the home team’s favour.

The diving Philbin aquaplaned to get his hand to Ewan Irwion’s grubber kick for the game’s decisive try just five minutes from the end after Leopards held a two-point lead for most of the second half.

Adrian Lam gave 24 players a taste of the action as Innes Senior, Adam Cook, Jacob Alick-Wiencke, Liam Horne and Oliver Polec got their first outings in a Leopards jersey.

A huge Leopards following gave atmosphere and intensity to the occasion, which seemed far removed from a warm up game at times.

Cook and Horne already have songs in their honour and look set for big seasons ahead.

Wolves lost three times to Leopards in the league last season but ended Lam’s Challenge Cup dreams with a semi-final victory.

The hero of that day at St Helens, Marc Sneyd, was again influential as Wolves opened up a 10-0 interval lead with tries on the left edge by Toby King and Jake Thewlis, the second when Leopards were short handed with Keanan Brand in the sin bin for dissent..

With both sides making multiple changes and the weather worsening the game lacked fluency at times but there was no let up in the intensity.

Leopards broke their duck when Andrew Badrock pounced on Wolves’ inability to clear Lachlan Lam’s high kick. Cook converted from the touchline and was again on target when Senior sliced over on the left three minutes later.

There it stayed until Philbin’s late winner leaving both teams to assess the impact of a gruelling encounter on their players ahead of the start of their Challenge Cup campaigns next weekend.

Leopards: Bailey Hodgson, Keanan Brand, Umyla Hanley, Tesi Niu, Innes Senior; Adam Cook, Lachlan Lam; Joe Ofahengaue, Edwin ipape, Owen Trout, Frankie Halton, Jacob Alick-Wiencke, Jack Hughes

Bench: Josh Charnley, Matt Davis, Liam Horne, AJ Towse, Gareth O’Brien, Andrew Badrock, Ben McNamara, Nathan Wilde, Ryan Brown, Will Brough, Oliver Polec

Tries: Badrock (48), Senior (51)

Goals: Cook 2/ 2

Sin bin: Brand (30)

Wolves: Cai Taylor-Wray; Josh Thewlis, Toby King, Josh Smith, Jake Thewlis; George Williams, Marc Sneyd; Liam Byrne, Danny Walker, Luke Yates, Sam Stone, Kelepi Tanginoa, Ben Currie

Bench: Tommy Rhodes, Lachlan Webster, Ewan Irwin, Leon Hayes, Jordy Crowther, Ben Hartill, Joe Philbin, Luke Thomas, Ewan Smith, James Bentley, Max Wood

Tries: King (3), Jake Thewlis (39), Philbin (75)

Goals: Sneyd 1/ 2, Irwin 1/ 1

Referee: Tom Grant; Touch-judges: D Bowmer & M Craven

Attendance: 5,960

Scoring sequence: 6-0, 10-0 (ht) 10-6, 10-12, 16-12