Adrian Lam has stuck with the the exact same team that went out and beat Wakefield in last week's play-off eliminator.

Leigh Leopards: Hodgson, Brand, Niu, Hanley, Charnley, O'Brien, Lam, Ofahengaue, Ipape, Mulhern, Halton, Trout, Liu.

Interchanges: Hughes, Tuitavake, Davis, Dwyer.

After earning themselves a week off for finishing second in the table, the Wigan Warriors side that beat Leeds Rhinos in the last round of regular season fixtures is the same one we see tonight.

Wigan Warriors: Field, Miski, Keighran, Wardle, Marshall, French, Smith, Byrne, O'Neill, Thompson, Walters, Farrell, Ellis.

Interchanges: Havard, Nsemba, Mago, Leeming.

The storm in teacup (or WhatsApp chat, should I say), did a heck of a job of distracting from Super League's OTHER big stories of the week.

There, of course, was THAT finish at Leeds Rhinos only a week ago.

You know, the one that ended with a winning try for St Helens with the final play of the game - which was an outrageous 16-pass move that went from left to right back again (and had plenty more packed in-between).

It just about qualifies as the most dramatic finish in Super League history, as my colleague Jay Freeman explored in this piece earlier in the week.

But even that stunner of a rugby league moment was overshadowed by controversy within the very same game.

When initial replays seemed to show that Jon Bennison came up with a crucial try near the end - which proved instrumental in setting up the late drama - an additional angle that wasn't seen at the time then showed that he had come up short.

The Rugby Football League owned up to the error and apologised publicly to Leeds for the error.

Not that it counted for much as the result stood.

So yeah, it's been a rather unusual week in the build up to the semi-finals .

• Friday, 28 September – Leigh beat Wakefield 26-10 in the play-off eliminator to set up tonight’s semi-final against Wigan.
• Tuesday, 30 September at 10:37pm (or thereabouts, depending who you ask) – Wigan say that Leigh chairman Derek Beaumont informed them they did not intend to fulfil the fixture because of he perceives to be an "unacceptable" ticket allocation.
• Wednesday, 1 October at 9.35am – Wigan release a statement outlining the position Beaumont took overnight.
• Wednesday, 10.15am – Leigh post on social media that it was ‘Two days to go until the semi-final”. But there is no public acknowledgement of Wigan’s statement.
• Wednesday, 12noon – Wigan confirmed their 21-payer squad. Leigh do he same soon after.
• Wednesday, 10.37pm – Leigh chairman Beaumont has a 4,466-word statement, external in response to Wigan’s claims published on the club website. Among many claims and criticisms, he states his team are “preparing as normal” for the game.
• Thursday, 2 October at 2.02pm - Leigh post a video message from Beaumont in which he says it is “vitally important” that supporters attending the match do so “with class” in an effort to defuse mounting tensions.

The roars of joy in Leigh last week marked a high point in the Leopards' season.

Rather remarkably, the sound of emails and WhatsApp messages pinging between the two clubs, and the fallout that followed, is what has grabbed global attention.

It’s a messy story of tickets allocated, tickets sold, tickets rescinded, emails exchanged and ‘unofficial’ WhatsApp messages swapped between Leigh and Wigan chiefs.

So, without going into the why and wherefores of claims and counter claims (all 4,400+ words of them), I’ve pulled together a rough timeline of how this game was at risk… but seemingly never really at risk.

It’s only fair to start with actual sporting side of Leigh Leopards’ story.

They earned their place in tonight’s semi-final by sweeping aside Wakefield Trinity in their play-off eliminator.

Leigh dominated the first half and led 18-0 at the break, thanks to tries from Keanan Brand, Isaac Liu and Josh Charnley.

A Gareth O'Brien penalty and Alec Tuitavake score after the interval put the game beyond Wakefield’s reach and sent the Leopards stalking the short distance to Wigan this week.

If only winning that game in such stylish fashion was the biggest talking point of their week…

Good evening and welcome to what promises to be an epic Battle of the Borough.

It’s the semi-final showdown that has been grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons this week… but more on that in a moment.

The long-and-short-of-it is that both teams are here, accounted for and ready to play.

Kick-off is about 30 minutes away, so let’s spend a bit of time recapping the chaos that has elevated this local rivalry to bizarre new heights.