Saturday 15 March 2025, Reserves
Warrington Wolves 58-8 Leigh Leopards
Victoria Park, Warrington (1pm)
Leopards’ young Reserves side suffered a heavy defeat against at the hands of the impressive, ruthless Wolves at Victoria Park.
Wolves ran in 11 tries, including a hat-trick to right-winger Frank Sergent and two tries on the opposite flank from Jake Thewlis as Leopards struggled to cope with adversity.
First team squad member AJ Twose withdrew in the warmup with a back spasm and Leopards lost Bailey Pemberton and Ben Tyrer to HIAs and Matty Rudd to a hamstring injury. They called on 18th player Joe Higgins-Meadows to add to Reece Galvin, who was brought into the 17.
With nine young academy players in the team, some of them first year academy, it was a learning afternoon as Wolves turned up the heat.
Reserves head coach Stuart Littler said: “Things got gradually worse during the day. AJ pulled out and it was the first time I’ve been involved in a game where the 18th man becomes active in the warmup and the 19th player comes on due to HIAs.
“We had a lot of academy players, lads playing out of position. It was a big rejig. Massive wraps to Brad Martin and Ryan Brown who were excellent. I thought they showed what being a first team professional is all about. You learn off players like that. They toughed it out in there for us.
“I thanked everyone for their efforts. It was tough out there. Henry Parker did big minutes at nine and halfback. He’s a second-year academy player and he played for the badge and battled through adversity.
“We didn’t throw the flag in there. Warrington are a well-structured side and showed us where we need to get to, to compete at this level. There are loads of learning things for us as a group.
“The lads are working hard. We know we have gaps to fill. You consider we were playing against lads who’ve been in a system for four to seven years. We’ve had players in our system for five months. We will keep pushing ourselves, work hard, take advice from the coaching staff and get there.
“It’s a long-term project and we must aspire to compete with the Warringtons, Wigans and Leeds. Each year we will get stronger and stronger.
“We start again next week with our academy playing their first game at Hull KR, which is a big leap forward for us as a club.”
Leopards begam well as Jack Darbyshire capitalised on Sergent’s error under Rudd’s high kick to open the scoring against his old side.
Sergent atoned for his error by replying with the first of his tries in the corner three minutes later but Leopards more than held their own for the first 25 minutes despite a 6-0 first half penalty count against them.
Once Zack Gardner combined with Thewlis to cross for Wolves’ second try, the home side grew in attacking confidence. Further tries by Joe Hickey, Tom McKinney and a second from Sergent opened a 26-4 interval lead.
Leopards fought hard against adversity in the second half as the injury toll mounted, forcing players to play out of position.
First team squad members Martin and Brown set outstanding examples, with their work rate in the front row while young Parker impressed at hooker and halfback.
Thewlis and Sergent added further tries before Darbyshire grabbed Leopards’ second try, again following a kick, this time by Rudd which caught the home defence napping.
The last quarter, however, was all Wolves led by Leigh born teenaged Ewan Irwin, who looks a fine halfback prospect.
Thewlis and Nolan Tupaea both crossed for further tries before fullback Flynn Holden saw his side past the half century mark. Oliver Morgan’s late try completed Wolves, impressively fluent display.
Wolves
Flynn Holden; Frank Sergent, James Duffy, Zack Gardner, Jake Thewlis; Joe Hickey, Ewan Irwin; Logan Raughter, Ben Hartill, Luke Thomas, Ewan Smith, Nolan Tupaea, Tom Whitehead
Bench:
Oliver Morgan, Tom McKinney, Isaac Reid, Joe Bajer. 18th player: Daniel Regan
Tries:
Sergent (5, 38, 48), Gardner (20), McKinney (32), Hickey (35), Thewlis (45, 58), Tupaea (65), Holden (69), Morgan (80)
Goals:
Gardner 1/ 3, Irwin 6/ 8
Leopards
TJ Boyd; James Parr, Zak Mannion, Jack Darbyshire, Lucas Tyrer; Ben Tyrer, Matthew Rudd; Ryan Brown, Henry Parker, Brad Martin, Kavan Rothwell, Bailey Pemberton, Luke Sutcliffe
Bench:
Ralph Wood, Joseph Bradburn, Jayden Aaron, Reece Galvin. 18th player: Joe Higgins-Meadows (played)
Tries:
Darbyshire (2, 55)
Goals:
B Tyrer 0/ 1, L Tyrer 0/ 1
Scoring sequence:
0-4, 4-4, 10-4, 14-4, 20-4, 26-4 (ht) 32-4, 38-4, 38-8, 42-8, 36-8, 52-8, 58-8
Referee:
Tara Jones
Touch judges:
Andrew Hawley & Rebecca Floyd
Penalty count:
9-2
