WIGAN WARRIORS 54 LEIGH LEOPARDS 0
DAVID KUZIO, The Brick Community Stadium, Thursday

THE thousands of Leigh fans who boycotted the short trip to Wigan will be glad they did as they were torn apart by a ruthless Warriors outfit.

Leopards owner Derek Beaumont released a statement before kick-off stating the club returned 3,550 of their 5,000 ticket allocation following complaints over their fans’ treatment at last season’s play-off semi-final.

Wigan are now three wins from three and, for the second week running at The Brick after easing past Hull FC, this game was over as a contest in no time.

As if their worst defeat since returning to Super League three years ago wasn’t bad enough, it was also a damaging night for Leigh on the injury front, starting with Edwin Ipape’s absence and continuing with Joe Ofahengaue limping from the field in the opening minutes.

Good set-up play from Luke Thompson helped Wigan open the scoring. He was tackled ten yards out and the ball went to Bevan French who fired out a pass for Adam Keighran to race onto and score.

Keighran converted, as he would for all nine of Wigan’s tries with Wigan looking so slick in attack. Liam Farrell was making big metres up the middle, as was Jai Field.

Oliver Partington was thwarted yards from the line before French got the ball and took on the Leigh defence, using his upper body strength to get the ball down.

Leigh were finding it hard to contain the Warriors, who took full advantage of their dominance with the third try of the half. A pin-point kick from Smith was knocked back by Junior Nsemba and Field was on hand to collect the ball and step over.

Smith and Field were tormenting Leigh and they combined to put this game to bed inside 30 minutes. The former was on hand to score under the posts after the latter drew in the defence to open a massive gap, and the Warriors had a 24-0 interval lead.

The start of the second half saw Matt Davis led from the field with a bloodied nose after the ball hit him in the face to leave them with just two interchange players.

Wigan were in no mood to take the foot off the gas as they crossed for their fifth score of the match and that was the pick of the bunch. Patrick Mago went through a huge gap before offloading to Smith who then turned it back inside for Field to grab his second.

Wigan were toying with Leigh and French was having a field day. He took the line on and fired out another long ball with Zach Eckersley on hand to touch down.

A seventh try followed in the 64th minute as Nsemba collected a grubber kick from Smith to score.

Smith then raced away for his second try of the evening after some amazing work from Field.

Tom Forber had the final say as he crossed to send Wigan past the 50-point mark, with this a lesson in how rugby league should be played.

The final blow for Leigh came with what could be a serious knee injury to Bailey Hodgson in the last couple of minutes.

GAMESTAR: For the second game in a row, Harry Smith was unplayable. He marshalled Wigan all across the park and was well supported by Jai Field and Bevan French.

GAMEBREAKER: Smith’s try just before the half-hour mark to make it 24-0 ended any hope of this game being a contest.

HIGHLIGHT REEL: The way Patrick Mago went through a gap and offloaded to Harry Smith, who then turned the ball back for Jai Field to get his second try, was a joy to watch.

ALBERT GOLDTHORPE POINTS
3 pts Harry Smith (Wigan)
2 pts Jai Field (Wigan)
1 pt Liam Farrell (Wigan)

MATCHFACTS

WARRIORS
1 Jai Field
2 Zach Eckersley
3 Adam Keighran
12 Liam Farrell
5 Liam Marshall
6 Bevan French
7 Harry Smith
8 Ethan Havard
9 Brad O’Neill
10 Luke Thompson
11 Junior Nsemba
14 Sam Walters
13 Kaide Ellis
Subs (all used)
15 Patrick Mago
17 Oliver Partington
20 Sam Eseh
22 Tom Forber
18th man (not used)
32 Dayon Sambou
Also in 21-man squad
19 Jack Farrimond
25 Taylor Kerr
27 Lukas Mason

Tries: Keighran (11), French (20), Field (24, 44), Smith (29, 70), Eckersley (54), Nsemba (64), Forber (77)
Goals: Keighran 9/9

LEOPARDS
18 Bailey Hodgson
19 Innes Senior
3 Tesi Niu
2 Keanan Brand
5 Josh Charnley
6 Adam Cook
7 Lachlan Lam
8 Joe Ofahengaue
17 Liam Horne
10 Robbie Mulhern
11 Frankie Halton
12 Owen Trout
13 Isaac Liu
Subs (all used)
15 Jacob Alick-Wiencke
16 Matt Davis
21 Gareth O’Brien
22 Jack Hughes
18th man (not used)
23 Andy Badrock
Also in 21-man squad
4 Umyla Hanley
9 Edwin Ipape
28 Ryan Brown

SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 12-0, 18-0, 24-0; 30-0, 36-0, 42-0, 48-0, 54-0

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Warriors: Harry Smith; Leopards: Isaac Liu

Penalty count: 7-3
Half-time: 24-0
Referee: Liam Moore
Attendance: 16,370