Betfred Super League Round 7
Leopards Den, Thursday 4 April 2024 (8pm)
Leigh Leopards 12 Wigan Warriors 40
Wigan Warriors won the first Battle of the Borough of the 2024 season, scoring eight tries- all by different players- at a sold-out Leopards Den.
Two key Warriors players, Bevan French and Jake Wardle signed long term contract extensions in the week, and both were instrumental in an impressive display by the world champions. Wardle, though, was the only member of the starting Warriors’ back-line not to score with Willie Isa and Junior Nsemba also crossing.
Josh Charnley, awarded the Leopards’ player of the match accolade, is now just five tries away from the major achievement of 300 career tries. He also created Ricky Leutele’s try with a great piece of footwork.
Leopards fielded only eight of the 17 that took Warriors so close at the Leopards Den last September when the visitors’ hard earned 10-6 win clinched the League Leaders’ Shield.
Injuries have hit Adrian Lam’s squad hard at the start of 2024 with three of last season’s Dream Team, John Asiata, Edwin Ipape and Tom Amone on the sidelines and England prop Robbie Mulhern the latest casualty.
The teams went into the first Derby of the season proudly holding all the major trophies between them: Leopards the Challenge Cup, Warriors the League Leaders’ Shield, Super League title and as World Champions.
Mulhern pulled out with injury before the game, but Leutele and Frankie Halton returned after missing the Salford game through injury. Ben McNamara started at nine with Brad Dwyer on the bench. For Warriors Harvie Hill and Tiaki Chan came in for the suspended Liam Byrne and Tyler Dupree.
Leopards made a bright start once smoke cleared from the pre-match pyrotechnics in front of a pumped up, rain-soaked, capacity crowd at the Leopards Den, piling on the early pressure- but Warriors held out and came back strongly.
It took Warriors eight minutes to come up with a slick response, Abbas Miski squeezing over in the corner in Charnley’s despairing challenge from French’s long pass.
Things got worse for Leopards as Matt Moylan was sin-binned, making contact with Jai Field’s head as the Warriors fullback slipped just before contact.
French took advantage of the extra man, sliding a precise kick from 20 metres out for the supporting Isa to score his first try since September 2021, Harry Smith converting.
Moylan returned without further loss, but the consequence of his brief absence was that the Leopards briefly looked heavy-legged, and Warriors sensed the chance to open up a decisive advantage.
Again, it was French doing the damage, this time as a finisher as he grubber-kicked ahead from the 20-metre line and won the race for the touchline. In the build-up Patrick Mago’s superb off-load found Field in support to leave the Leopards’ defence backpedalling.
Three minutes later Smith was in support to notch his side’s fourth try after Kruise Leeming exploded away from dummy half just inside his own half, adding the conversion for a 20-0 lead.
Brad Dwyer energised Leopards’ attack from the bench and eight minutes from half-time Leutele opened his side’s account with a smart try, created by Gareth O’Brien’s dabbed kick which was deftly knocked inside by Charnley’s left foot.
Moylan added the conversion, then forced a goal-line drop-out with a testing kick to the right. As the seconds ticked down, he pulled a penalty attempt wide after Miski was fortunate to escape with just a warning after a late challenge on O’Brien.
Leopards continued where they left off at the start of the second half, pressing for an opening as they attacked the North Stand until Field supplied the game’s decisive moment. O’Brien’s grubber kick ten metres out was safely collected by Smith and he offloaded for Field to stylishly race away from the trailing defence for a 90-metre try, his first of the season.
For the second time in the game, Warriors scored back-to-back tries, Adam Keighran sliding over on the right from Smith’s superb overhead pass after Dwyer had brilliantly denied French his second try with a quite outstanding last-ditch tackle. Smith then pulled another pass out of his repertoire, this time a short one sending Nsemba over for his first Super League try.
Leopards showed plenty of resolve and put together a fine passing move, right to left, Charnley crossing in the corner from Leutele’s superb assist for the 295th try of his career, 164 of which were in the Warriors’ ranks, Moylan converting.
Warriors maintained their intensity to the end, superb centre play by Wardle creating their eighth and final try for Liam Marshall. Leopards dug deep to prevent any more tries but the visitors had convincingly earned their tenth win in 11 Super League games between the Borough rivals.
Leopards
1 Gareth O’Brien; 24 Umyla Hanley, 3 Zak Hardaker, 4 Ricky Leutele, 5 Josh Charnley; 6 Matt Moylan, 7 Lachlan Lam (capt); 14 Dan Norman, 21 Ben McNamara, 17 Owen Trout, 11 Kai O’Donnell, 16 Frankie Halton, 12 Jack Hughes
Bench: 18 Ben Nakubuwai, 15 Matt Davis, 33 Brad Dwyer, 19 Ed Chamberlain
18th player: 29 Lewis Baxter (not used)
Tries: Leutele (32), Charnley (60)
Goals: Moylan 2/ 3
Sin bin: Moylan (12)
Warriors
1 Jai Field; 2 Abbas Miski, 3 Adam Keighran, 4 Jake Wardle, 5 Liam Marshall; 6 Bevan French, 7 Harry Smith; 16 Luke Thompson, 9 Brad O’Neill, 20 Harvie Hill, 11 Willie Isa, 12 Liam Farrell (capt), 13 Kaide Ellis
Bench: 15 Patrick Mago, 17 Kruise Leeming, 21 Junior Nsemba. 24 Tiaki Chan
18th player: 26 Zach Eckersley (not used)
Tries: Miski (8), Isa (17), French (26), Smith (29), Field (46), Keighran (52), Nsemba (57), Marshall (66)
Goals: Smith 4/ 8
Scoring sequence: 0-4, 0-10. 0-14, 0-20, 6-20 (ht) 6-26, 6-30, 6-36, 12-36, 12-40
Half-time: 6-20
Attendance: 10,308 (sell-out)
Referee: Jack Smith: Touch-judges:W Turley & R Cox; Video Referee: L Moore; Reserve referee: J Vella; MC: R Safi. Timekeeper: Bob Connolly
Main match sponsor: iDuct.co.uk; Programme sponsor: NutraPrep’s; Official kit and retail partner: Patrick
Leopards Player of the Match: Josh Charnley
