Super League: Leigh Leopards 12-40 Wigan Warriors - Wigan put eight tries past Leigh

Wigan bounced back from their first defeat of the season by thrashing Leigh to reclaim top spot.

The world champions ran in eight tries as Leigh were consigned to a fifth defeat in their opening six games.

Wigan were smarting from their Good Friday loss against St Helens, and this 'Battle of the Borough' against their neighbours was never truly in doubt.

Liam Marshall's seventh try this season tied him with Leeds' Ash Handley at the top of the scoring charts.

The loss to Saints also cost the Warriors the services of props Tyler Dupree and Liam Byrne, both banned for offences in that game, but any hope Leigh might have had to capitalise disappeared in a wave of tries.

Leigh began brightly after the kick-off was briefly delayed by dense smoke from the pre-match pyrotechnics, but their first error saw Wigan press hard for Abbas Miski to finish brilliantly in the corner.

The Leopards then lost Matt Moylan for making head contact with Jai Field as the Wigan man slipped, and Wigan struck again, Bevan French's delicate kick gathered by Willie Isa to score.

French, celebrating his new four-year contract this week, scored another from his own kick, and Harry Smith went in under the posts as Leigh struggled to cope with Wigan's power and pace.

Josh Charnley's soccer-style footwork provided the returning Ricky Leutele with Leigh's first try to give them hope of a second-half revival.

That dissipated faster than the firework smoke as Field ran from just outside his own 10-metre line for a brilliant first try of the season and then Smith's looping pass sent Adam Keighran over for another.

The influential Smith was soon at it again, setting up 19-year-old local Wigan-born Junior Nsemba for his first Super League try, before Leigh's Charnley grabbed a consolation try against his old club.

Wigan wrapped up the scoring as Marshall made the most of Jake Wardle's superb break to claim his seventh try of the season.

Leigh's on-loan Warrington player Brad Dwyer told BBC Radio Manchester:

"We felt we were in it but obviously the scoreboard says different. A quality team like Wigan, when they execute like that, are hard to deal with.

"There are areas for us to be better, we just have to get our heads down and go again for a big game in the cup next week.

"We are doing it tough at the minute. Things are going against us with injuries and results, so it's really challenging, as we are here to win.

"I just went on and tried to give the boys a bit of a lift and I thought I did that. There were a few errors in there but it's difficult when you're 20 or 30 points down, but personally I'd rather go down throwing punches."

Wigan coach Matt Peet told BBC Radio Manchester:

"It was a tough challenge against a motivated Leigh, with a full house and the weather coming in sideways, but the lads performed well.

"We understand Leigh have a few troops down at the moment so the start was always going to be massive. Once we did that, we put Leigh in a difficult position.

"Whenever you lose a game like we did last week, you want to respond in the right way, and not just get the win but also an improvement in performance.

[On the young players]: "Harvie Hill was excellent, Junior [Nsemba] was excellent, Tiaki [Chan] played his part and it was good to see Kruise Leeming get some more minutes under his belt, so it was a good night's work."

Leigh: O'Brien; Hanley, Hardaker, Leutele, Charnley; Moylan, Lam; Norman, McNamara, Trout, O'Donnell, Halton, Hughes

Interchanges: Nakubuwai, Davis, Dwyer, Chamberlain, Baxter.

Sin bin: Moylan (11)

Wigan: Field; Miski, Keighran, Wardle, Marshall; French, Smith; Thompson, O'Neill, Hill, Isa, Farrell, Ellis.

Interchanges: Mago, Leeming, Nsemba, Chan, Eckersley.

Referee: Jack Smith

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