WARRINGTON WOLVES 12 LEIGH LEOPARDS 34
IAN RIGG, Halliwell Jones Stadium, Saturday

LEIGH LEOPARDS secured an impressive six-try victory over the Wolves to maintain the pressure on Leeds for third place in the Super League table.

The game started badly for the Wolves when Marc Sneyd’s kick-off sailed dead, putting the Leopards straight onto the attack and the first handover was right on the Wire line.

The Leopards took the lead in the fourth minute when a high kick caused problems for the Wolves defence and Umyla Hanley went close. On the next play Keanan Brand dived in at the corner for the opening try, but Gareth O’Brien could not convert from the touchline, although he would convert every other try.

Good tackling was needed when Frankie Halton was held up un nine minutes and Wolves lost the unlucky Leon Hayes to what appears to be a broken arm.

High kicks were proving tricky for the Wolves’ defence until Luke Yates broke clear on eighteen minutes and was just stopped by ten metres out but in the next stage of play they wasted the opportunity by losing the ball.

The Leopards had the momentum and they were throwing everything at the Wolves defence, but it was holding out despite the many handovers near their own line.

Warrington went on the attack again on thirty minutes and were awarded a penalty when Jack Hughes made a late tackle on a Sneyd kick on halfway, but the penalty was awarded where the ball landed on the ten-metre line.

But Dufty lost the ball in the resulting Wolves attack and from the knock-on the Leopards went back up the field and put more pressure on the line, which saw saw Matt Davis follow a kick to score under the posts after a video-referee review to give the Leopards a ten-point cushion.

There was still time for a couple more chances before the break with the Leopards having a good spell before they were caught offside at a kick.

In the final minute of the half Wolves attacked the line but Toby King knocked on in a good position.

There was a better start from the Wolves to the second half when they tested the Leopards’ defence when Dufty tried to create play but the defence held firm.

An incident was placed on report on 47 minutes when Tesi Niu had to leave the field for a head-injury assessment, which he failed, therefore keeping out of the Leopards’ next clash against St Helens on Friday.

It was the Leopards again who picked up their game and a good break by Alex Tuitavake put them in a great position to strike and a good passing movement to the right saw Brand sail over in the corner.

The Leopards introduced their eighteenth man Andrew Badrock on the hour due to Niu having failed his HIA as a result of foul play.

There were then two chances for the Wolves, both of which came to nothing.

But there was more pressure from the Leopards and Hanley was the next to score, finishing off a good passing movement to touch down on the right, putting the Leopards 22 points ahead and out of sight.

Hodgson, who had impressed throughout, went in for the next try after good play down the left before the Wire at last hit back with two tries in three minutes when firstly King finished off a good move down the left and Stefan Ratchford, playing his last Wolves home game, added the conversion.

Virtually straight from the restart good play down the left saw Josh Thewlis cross for a try and Ratchford converted again.

The final try was scored by the Leopards when Brand completed his hat-trick off a good pass from Hanley.

Leigh coach Adrian Lam was happy to have registered such a convincing victory.

“I’m very satisfied with the performance,” he said.

“It was stop-start at times, but we got through it okay and we were good from the start.

“Sometimes we were off with our plays but our halfbacks and fullback all worked as one and we were okay from that.

“I think it’s the first time we have beaten Warrington at their home in the Super League area so that’s another tick in the box.

“We will take all the remaining games as they come and see how high we can finish. We lost Tesi Niu with the head knock, but we will have a look for that position for next week. We might have players back next week, so that will help.”

His Warrington counterpart Sam Burgess was much less happy with the result.

“The scoreline didn’t reflect our effort and we gave away too many errors in our own half,” he said. “But we came back and scored a couple of tries.

“It was a bit blow to lose Leon Hayes with a broken arm. We will need to fill that position next week and bounce back and get some more confidence for next week.

“Stefan played his last home game today and he got a great send off from the fans at the end.”

GAMESTAR: Keanan Brand scored three well-taken tries at important times.

GAMEBREAKER: Bailey Hodgson’s second try on 50 minutes put Leigh 16 points ahead and Warrington didn’t look as though they could recover from that deficit.

HIGHLIGHT REEL: Umyla Hanley made several breaks that must have put him in Shaun Wane’s mind for the England squad for the Ashes this autumn.

ALBERT GOLDTHORPE POINTS
3 pts; Bailey Hodgson (Leigh)
2 pts: Keenan Brand (Leigh)
1 pt: Lachlan Lam (Leigh)

MATCHFACTS
WOLVES
1 Matt Dufty
2 Josh Thewlis
3 Toby King
19 Stefan Ratchford
28 Jake Thewlis
35 Marc Sneyd
7 Leon Hayes
15 Joe Philbin
9 Danny Walker
13 Luke Yates
38 Sam Stone
12 Lachlan Fitzgibbon
40 Ryan Matterson
Subs (all used)
14 Sam Powell
27 Luke Thomas
24 Max Wood
21 Adam Holroyd
18th man (not used)
39 Tom McKinney
Also in 21-man squad
42 James Duffy
36 Ewan Irwin
23 Cai Taylor-Wray

Tries: King (72), Josh Thewlis (75)
Goals: Ratchford 2/2

LEOPARDS
24 Bailey Hodgson
18 Keanan Brand
3 Tesi Niu
4 Umyla Hanley
5 Josh Charnley
6 Gareth O’Brien
7 Lachlan Lam
14 Aaron Pene
9 Edwin Ipape
10 Robbie Mulhern
11 Frankie Halton
12 Jack Hughes
13 Issac Liu
Subs (all used)
8 Owen Trout
15 Alec Tuitavake
16 Matt Davis
17 Brad Dwyer
18th man (used)
21 Andy Badrock
Also in 21-man squad
2 Darnell McIntosh
22 Ben McNamara
29 AJ Towse

Tries: Brand (4, 50, 78), Davis (32), Hanley (64), Hodgson (69)
Goals: O’Brien 5/6

SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-4, 0-10; 0-16, 0-22, 0-28, 6-28, 12-28

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Wolves: Stefan Ratchford; Leopards: Bailey Hodgson

Penalty count: 4-7
Half-time: 0-10
Referee: Chris Kendall
Attendance: 11,060