The cream rises to the top

Like most observers I had been hoping to see another tightly fought play-off semi-final, but instead we had a one-sided romp by Wigan.

Wigan have a wonderful Rugby League team and I admire them immensely.

But we need someone to be able to give them a tight game when it comes to the business end of the season.

Unfortunately that someone wasn’t destined to be Leigh Leopards.

The Leopards don’t have a deep squad, so whereas Wigan can be deprived of their captain Liam Farrell, but can replace him with Sam Walters, Leigh found it far more difficult to replace Kai O’Donnell, Frankie Halton and Josh Charnley. They tried hard but ultimately they looked like a team that was missing some its key players.

There’s no disgrace in suffering a heavy defeat and no one could accuse Leigh of lacking spirit. But it was always destined to be a demonstration of Wigan pace, power and skill against outgunned opponents.

If Wigan do prevail at Old Trafford on Saturday, it will mean they have won every trophy available to them this season. Only Hull KR stand in their way and it’s worth remembering that a year ago it was the Robins who travelled to Wigan in the semi-final, only to be trounced 42-12 in front of a massive bank of their fans, just as Leigh had on Saturday evening.

I can’t see Wigan’s performance falling away at Old Trafford, compared to what we saw on Saturday, so we have to hope that the Robins can repeat their performances in the league at Craven Park and at the Brick Community Stadium of a few weeks ago, when they lost 24-20 and would probably have won the game if it hadn’t been for two yellow cards.

On Saturday I had misgivings about the match when I saw the two teams waiting to come out onto the pitch.

Leigh were led by their captain John Asiata, who looked intensely nervous and seemed to be saying a silent prayer.

It actually made me think back to the 1998 Challenge Cup Final, when Sheffield Eagles sprang the greatest ever Wembley shock by beating Wigan that year 17-8. The Eagles, led by their then captain Paul Broadbent, came out onto the Wembley pitch looking as though they were breathing fire, giving deadly glances at the Wigan players as though they were going to eat them alive.

That was when I first thought that a shock could be on the cards and if Hull KR are to genuinely challenge Wigan on Saturday, that’s the sort of body language I will be hoping to see.

One of the things that Saturday’s game demonstrated was that minor errors can have consequential outcomes.

Matt Moylan only slightly bobbled what would have been a remarkable catch of a kick from Bevan French after nine minutes. But it was enough to be spotted by the referee Chris Kendall, Wigan got the field position and just over a minute later Liam Marshall was scoring their first try.

And when Wigan got a set restart in the eighteenth minute, Walters was soon stretching his long arm to score their second try.

After that, Leigh had a spell of pressure that culminated with what looked likely to be a score, but Abbas Miski intercepted Ricky Leutele’s pass and sped downfield, to be caught by Lachlan Lam.

Wigan’s third try came a minute after Robbie Mulhern dropped the ball and their fourth came again from Walters almost immediately after Aaron Pene dropped the ball in the first tackle of the second half.

And that was game over.

Wigan scored two further tries from that great double act French and Field and those tries were the icing on the cake.

Those two players are wonderful to watch, whatever the score.

Unfortunately for Hull KR, I suspect that both will be keen to shine on the big stage this weekend.

Wigan fans will be hoping they both manage to avoid catching the virus that knocked out Liam Farrell.

Hull KR supporters could be forgiven for taking a different view.