WAKEFIELD TRINITY 12 LEIGH LEOPARDS 20
STEPHEN IBBETSON, DIY Kitchens Stadium, Friday
LEIGH avenged the previous week’s Super League defeat and snapped their two-game losing run with an impressive late surge to beat Wakefield to a Challenge Cup semi-final spot.
An exciting, nip-and-tuck knockout affair between two recent Wembley winners was level heading into the final quarter.
But a Gareth O’Brien penalty, followed shortly after by a gifted try to Bailey Hodgson, ensured that it’s Leigh who are 80 minutes from a return to the national stadium.
While their hopes of repeating the 2023 Challenge Cup triumph remain alive, Wakefield proved unable to emulate the Leopards’ achievement that year of following 1895 Cup glory with success in the top competition.
Lachlan Lam – Leigh’s match-winning hero at Wembley two years ago – opened the scoring here approaching the quarter mark, collecting a kick inside from the touchline by Keanan Brand to score by the posts and give O’Brien a simple conversion.
Before then, Wakefield had edged proceedings, with a Mason Lino 20/40 giving them early territorial advantage and Matty Russell going closest to scoring, tackled into touch by Hodgson after a wide Lino pass.
But after Lam’s try it was Leigh on top. Tesi Niu was held up on the last play of a length-of-the-field set, and Isaac Liu – making his 300th career appearance – was similarly denied a little later.
And after an obstruction call denied a potential Wakefield attack on a rare foray forward, O’Brien missed a field-goal attempt on the stroke of half-time as it remained 0-6.
It proved costly as that lead lasted little more than a minute, with Wakefield defying the loss of Oliver Russell late in the first half to make an excellent start to the second.
David Armstrong unwisely allowed a Lino kick to bounce, and Matty Russell benefitted to go over out wide with Lino subsequently adding the touchline conversion to level.
And by the 49th minute the comeback was complete as Oliver Pratt stepped past opposing centre Umyla Hanley and had the support of fullback Josh Rourke, who scored his first Wakefield try as Lino goaled for 12-6.
All that good work was undone as the hour mark approached, however. After Rourke dropped a high bomb, Niu received the ball from the scrum and stepped his way past two defenders in close attention for an all-too-easy try, improved by O’Brien from in front to square things back up.
Wakefield looked to hit back through another thrilling break from Pratt, but this time the centre opted to go alone instead of using the support of Tom Johnstone and was kept at bay by Armstrong.
A couple of minutes later, Trinity were penalised for a high tackle in kicking range and O’Brien’s boot nudged Leigh back in the driving seat.
But the real decisive moment quickly followed when Rourke fielded a high ball only for an attempted pass to Russell to hit the ground in front of the posts as Hodgson accepted the gift.
O’Brien continued his perfect kicking record for a two-score lead at 12-20, and the late miss of another penalty attempt came too late to affect the result.
GAMESTAR: Tesi Niu was a real force on the edge for Leigh.
GAMEBREAKER: Bailey Hodgson’s gifted try was a true sucker punch as Wakefield threw away any hope of progression.
HIGHLIGHT REEL: He should have been tackled, but the dancing feet of big man Tesi Niu were still great to watch.
MATCHFACTS
TRINITY
23 Josh Rourke
24 Matty Russell
3 Cameron Scott
19 Oliver Pratt
5 Tom Johnstone
20 Mason Lino
7 Oliver Russell
8 Mike McMeeken
9 Liam Hood
15 Caleb Hamlin-Uele
25 Jack Croft
18 Isaiah Vagana
13 Jay Pitts
Subs (all used)
10 Ky Rodwell
16 Renouf Atoni
21 Mathieu Cozza
28 Harvey Smith
18th man (not used)
4 Corey Hall
Also in 21-man squad
2 Lachlan Walmsley
12 Josh Griffin
31 Caius Faatili
Tries: M Russell (42), Rourke (49)
Goals: Lino 2/2
LEOPARDS
1 David Armstrong
24 Bailey Hodgson
3 Tesi Niu
4 Umyla Hanley
18 Keanan Brand
6 Gareth O’Brien
7 Lachlan Lam
8 Owen Trout
9 Edwin Ipape
10 Robbie Mulhern
20 Ethan O’Neill
11 Frankie Halton
13 Isaac Liu
Subs
12 Jack Hughes
15 Alec Tuitavake
16 Matt Davis
19 Louis Brogan (not used)
18th man (not used)
22 Ben McNamara
Also in 21-man squad
5 Josh Charnley
14 Aaron Pene
17 Brad Dwyer
Tries: Lam (19), Niu (58), Hodgson (68)
Goals: O’Brien 4/5
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6; 6-6, 12-6, 12-12, 12-14, 12-20
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Trinity: Isaiah Vagana; Leopards: Tesi Niu
Penalty count: 3-7
Half-time: 0-6
Referee: Jack Smith
Attendance: 6,125