Wigan brush aside Leigh to book Grand Final place

Betfred Super League

Wigan (18) 38

Tries: Marshall (2), Walters (2), French, Field Goals: Keighran (7)

Leigh (0) 0

Wigan swept aside Leigh to set up a tantalising Grand Final against Hull Kingston Rovers next week.

Super League top try-scorer Liam Marshall and second rower Sam Walters scored two tries apiece and Bevan French and Jai Field added brilliant showpiece efforts to emphasise the Warriors’ superiority.

It means the Super League's top two will meet at Old Trafford next Saturday, with the Warriors aiming to underline their dominance by winning all four trophies in the calendar year after lifting the World Club Challenge, the Challenge Cup and the League Leaders' Shield.

Defeat meant a Leigh side which will break up this winter, with key players leaving, missed out on a first Grand Final appearance.

Wigan had beaten Leigh in the previous 15 meetings at the Brick Community Stadium, and the result was never in doubt once quick hands stretched the visitors’ defence and Field fed 2023 Grand Final matchwinner Marshall to score in the corner.

Wigan fans had been concerned about the absence of the iconic Liam Farrell from the matchday squad but that handed an opportunity to 23-year-old Walters, and he stretched out his 6ft 7in frame to add another try when he seemed to have been held up.

Adam Keighran added a penalty as Wigan crushed the life out of a beleaguered Leigh side, and Marshall found more space to give Wigan an 18-point lead at half-time.

Walters raced through a gap created by French’s delightfully delicate short pass two minutes after the interval to remove any doubts about the outcome, and Wigan’s ruthless approach was illustrated when Keighran took another kick at the posts as Leigh continued to leak penalties.

With the game won, Wigan turned on the style, with their Australian stars French and Field taking centre stage.

Another sweeping attack seemed to have broken down but French, the 2023 Man of Steel, pirouetted on the spot, seeking an option, and when he found none he cheekily dinked a grubber kick and raced through to score himself, in his 100th appearance for the club.

Coach Matt Peet is normally poker-faced but laughed uproariously in the stand at the sheer impertinence and invention.

Field rounded it all off by turning on the afterburners to run around a flagging Leigh defence to enable Keighran to add his seventh successful kick.

Post-match reaction

Wigan head coach Matt Peet told BBC Sport:

“Unbelievable - that's why he (Bevan French) is special. He's an unbelievable talent. He's a special player and a pleasure to coach.

“Coaches can take no credit for that whatsoever. It's just instinct and it's Bevan knowing his team-mates want to back him

“The biggest thing for coaches is we give the players the keys to play. It was a fantastic night for Super League, for Leigh as well."

Leigh head coach Adrian Lam told BBC Radio Manchester:

“They’ve come out fresh after a week off and were physical. We made too many errors and compounded the issue, That’s the bottom line.

“I’m extremely proud (of the players). They’ve worked really hard to work away into this position tonight, the furthest the club has got in Super League.

“We’re not delighted with the result but we’re building. We won the Championship two years ago, the Challenge Cup and finished fifth last year and now we’ve finished fourth, so we’re heading in the right direction."

Wigan: Field, Miski, Keighran, Wardle, Marshall, French, Smith, Havard, Leeming, Thompson, Nsemba, Walters, Ellis

Interchanges: Byrne, Mago, Dupree, Forber

Leigh: Moylan, Hardaker, Leutele, Hanley, McIntosh, O'Brien, Lam, Amone, Ipape, Mulhern, Holmes, Hughes, Asiata

Interchanges: Trout, Pene, Dwyer, Davis

Referee: Chris Kendall