Leeds beat Wigan to book third straight final v Saints

Betfred Women's Challenge Cup semi-final

Wigan (14) 20

Tries: Molyneux, Banks, Gregory-Haselden Goals: Knowles (4)

Leeds (14) 34

Tries: Enright (2), Beevers, Hornby, Butcher, Murray, Bennett Goals: Enright (3)

Leeds reached their third successive Women’s Challenge Cup final with a powerful second-half performance against a young Wigan side.

Ruby Enright scored a try in each half in a meeting of two teams who both boasted 100% records in the Super League and Challenge Cup coming into this semi-final.

The Warriors gave as good as they got in the opening period at the Totally Wicked Stadium, tries from Vicky Molyneux and Grace Banks seeing them level at half time against a Leeds side who scored through Enright, Caitlin Beevers and Zoe Hornby.

But Leeds took control in the second half and will face old rivals St Helens - who have beaten them in the last two finals - at Wembley on 8 June.

Rhinos are old hands in the Challenge Cup, winning it in 2018 and 2019 and reaching their first-ever Wembley final last year.

• Relive the semi-final as it happened

Wigan, by contrast, were seeking to reach their first final, and after a strong start to the season under club legend Denis Betts were optimistic of breaking their duck.

Leeds soon made it plain they were out for a re-match with Saints, who beat York Valkyrie on Saturday as they seek a fourth straight win in the competition.

Nip and tuck

Enright scored in the corner with the Wigan defence stretched just 70 seconds into the game, but Molyneux stepped between two defenders to level and Emma Knowles’ kick edged Wigan ahead.

The rest of the half was nip and tuck as Beevers finished following Enright’s innovative grubber kick to herself from the re-start, a score that levelled it at 8-8.

Full-back Grace Banks raced through a gap to restore Wigan’s lead but Hornby made sure it was all-square at the break, spinning out of a tackle to power over under the posts.

Jade Gregory-Haselden shrugged off three tacklers to surge over for Wigan early in the second half but that prompted a gear change by Leeds as Hanna Butcher scored a try and then chipped a kick ahead for Enright to catch and score her second.

With Wigan wilting in the heat, Lucy Murray jinked through a gap to score again and England international Keara Bennett stretched out an arm to touch down the seventh try put the seal on the win.

Post-match reaction

Leeds full-back Ruby Enright, named player of the match, told the BBC:

"We struggled with the conditions; they made it harder. We needed a competitive game like that [against York] coming into this week.

"We were hurt last year [against St Helens]. Hopefully we can go back and get the win this time."

Wigan: Banks, Welsford, Hilton, Davies, Derbyshire, Rowe, Knowles, Speakman, R. Casey, Fisher, Molyneux, Coleman, Thompson

Interchanges: Singleton, Gregory-Haselden, Jones, Foubister

Leeds: Enright, Whitehead, Beevers, Hardcastle, Cousins, Butcher, C. Casey, Field, Bennett, Northrop, Murray, Sykes, Dainton

Interchanges: Robinson, Hornby, Greening, Donnelly

Referee: Adam Williams