Leigh Centurions v Wigan Warriors - Pre Season Friendly.
Sunday 17th January 2016. Kick Off 3:00pm at Leigh Sports Village.

Match Report

I felt pre match that the balance between regulars and youth was a good one for this opening pre season match and we got to see a good even contest between Leigh and Wigan.

The more recognised names in the Wigan side included a few who have plenty to prove in 2016. Anthony Gelling and Josh Charnley need to respond to being dropped late last season. Lee Mossop had a poor 2015 by his own acknowledgement whilst Taulima Tautai's season ending suspension last year was met with little bother. Sam Powell also is still to convince as a bench hooker whilst Lewis Tierney obviously has a big chance at full back with Ryan Hampshire on loan at Castleford and Sam Tomkins injured until April.

Ben Flower has nothing to prove though and he was excellent in the opening quarter. In fact Wigan started great all round. They completed all their early sets and made no errors in the opening quarter. This helped them into a 14-0 lead.

The first try was a gift one. Good kick in terms of position from Sam Powell but it should have been easily taken by Greg McNally. He fumbled though and Charnley pounced in the corner for 4-0 with the conversion missing. Then a brace for Liam Marshall in the right corner took Wigan into a 14-0 lead inside 15 minutes and all was happy in the camp.

Interchanges saw the tide change though. Mossop's introduction for Flower was flatulent to say the least with him being guilty of penalty conceding on two or three occasions. Leigh eased back into the game from that with tries from Liam Kay and Adam Higson helping them back to 14-10. Then two minutes before half time, Luke Davico sympathiser Sam Hopkins turned up to crash over and it was 16-14 to Leigh at the break.

Wigan suffered a blow just before the break also with Stand Off Nick Gregson being lost injured for the rest of the match. Seven minutes into the second half though, Wigan scored a great 70 metre try to re-take the lead. Charnley made the half break before Gabriel Fell was clear away. I'm not sure why he didn't score himself but he offloaded for Lewis Tierney to finish and Powell converted to put Wigan 20-16 in front.

Frustrating for Wigan however was that Leigh were back level within three minutes. An error gave position for McNally to score and it was now 20-20.

Taulima Tautai had now taken over from Mossop as chief penalty conceder and this eventually helped Leigh take the lead just after the hour mark with a try from ex Wigan academy Jamie Acton. I thought another ex Wigan lad Tom Spencer had a great spell at this point as well.

So Leigh led 26-20 into the final quarter but Wigan never gave up having a decent dig to come back. Leigh's half back experience was telling at times but they really did show their desperation to win this match when Rangi Chase attempted a drop goal for 27-20. Laughable to be doing that in pre season I think but there you go. His effort went well wide anyway.

No further scoring occurred so it finished 26-20 to Leigh. Overall I felt this was quite a good effort from the young Wigan side. Take the penalties away (10-4 count against Wigan) and their was little to complain about from this display. Pre season isn't so much about result but you can set a good tone for the season ahead and compared to last years visit to Leigh, the tone set was far better. It was a good hit out for both sides.

A stronger outfit is expected to play against Salford next week but I'm also sure the likes of Liam Marshall, Luke Waterworth and Jack Wells will get another chance to impress also.

Team Sheets

Score Sheet

Scoring and Incident Pattern

Referee

Ben Thaler

Penalties Conceded

Leigh 4 Wigan 10

Match Attendance

4,614

Weather

Cold. Light Snow at kick off.