Leigh sweep aside Huddersfield to seal third place

Betfred Super League

Leigh Leopards (8) 30

Tries: Towse, Charnley, Hodgson, Halton, Dwyer 2 Goals: O'Brien 2, McNamara

Huddersfield Giants (4) 16

Tries: Jagger, Bibby, Burgess Goals: Flanagan 2

Leigh Leopards sealed third place in the Super League table by scoring six tries to beat Huddersfield Giants.

Tries from wingers AJ Towse and Josh Charnley put them 8-0 up before Lewis Jagger replied with a try on his debut for Huddersfield before half-time.

Jake Bibby brought the visitors level after the break, but Leigh regained the lead with a try from full-back Bailey Hodgson.

Frankie Halton extended the lead and Brad Dwyer added two more tries, either side of Huddersfield's third try, from Tom Burgess.

Leigh will now host Wakefield Trinity in the first play-off eliminator on Friday, 26 September.

They will do so having earned the highest finish in their history, having been playing in the Championship three seasons ago.

But it was a 20th defeat of the season for Huddersfield, who finish 10th in the table.

Leigh took the lead after just three minutes as they spread play on the last tackle and AJ Towse dived into the right corner, before Charnley scored their second try on the opposite side.

The Giants replied as debutant Jagger was found in half a yard of space, and he leapt to touch down for a spectacular maiden try as the visitors trailed 8-4 at the interval.

After the break, Bibby, playing his final game for Huddersfield, scored in the right corner to draw the visitors level at 8-8, but Leigh then took control.

Brad Dwyer scored two second-half tries for Leigh against Huddersfield

Hodgson slipped under a tackle and through two defenders to the line, before Halton was put on to a soft shoulder and forced his way over, with the video referee taking a long time to confirm the grounding.

The game then looked sealed as Dwyer, on his 250th Super League appearance, took the play-the-ball, dummied and dived over, with the conversion extending the lead to 24-10.

The visitors quickly found another reply as Burgess bounced off a weak tackle from Halton to find the tryline.

But the final say went to Leigh with two minutes remaining as Dwyer dummied again and darted through a hole to score a sixth try.

Leigh Leopards head coach Adrian Lam told BBC Radio Manchester:

"A couple of changes disrupted us but I'm not looking at that too much. There were some good signs and we'll take the positives out of it.

"We were without a few players but we still scored 30 points on the night.

"I get more frustrated when we make errors, when for the last six weeks we've been outstanding. That's just a slight attitude change and that gets better as the games get bigger."

Huddersfield Giants head coach Luke Robinson said:

(On the final game for retiring Leroy Cudjoe): "Leroy's career has been sensational. I've been very lucky as my rugby life has coincided with his rugby life.

"We made our debuts together and we've sort of grown together. We've played for England together, we've played for Giants together.

"I'm very privileged to have played at the side of him and I'm very privileged to have coached him as well.

"He's been a sensational player, but he's also a really good human being."

Leigh Leopards: Hodgson; Towse, Niu, Hanley, Charnley; O'Brien, Lam; Ofahengaue, McNamara, Mulhern, Halton, Trout, Liu.

Interchanges: Pene, Hughes, Davis, Tuitavake.

Huddersfield Giants: Flanagan; Jake Bibby, Milne, Gagai, Jagger; Russell, Rush; Burgess, Woolford, Powell, Rushton, Greenwood, Cudjoe.

Interchanges: Golding, King, Rogers, English.

Referee: Marcus Griffiths.