Warrington Wolves fall to defeat at Leigh

Pictures Eddie Whitham

A LARGE away following watched Warrington Wolves slip to a 30-12 defeat to in-form Leigh Leopards.

Two thousand Wire fans made the short journey to Leigh Sports Village but were left disappointed as the Wolves failed to recover from a 20-12 first half deficit, despite an improve second half performance.

Leigh started with an intensity that Warrington couldn’t match and they capitalised on errors by the visitors. Both sides had half chances early on, Matty Russell knocking on over the line and Kai O’Donnell having try ruled out for obstruction.

A knock on by Daryl Clark 20 metres out from his own line caused the scrum that led to the first try, scored by ex-Wire full-back Gareth O’Brien.

A forward pass then gifted more field position and this time Leigh shifted it right for Tom Briscoe to walk in, with Ben Reynolds’ two conversions making it 12-0.

Warrington were wobbling and it was perhaps a surprise when Reynolds opted to take a difficult penalty shot at goal to stretch the lead to 14.

From nothing though, Warrington got on the board. Clark split the defence through the middle and he had Williams backing up on his left shoulder to go under the posts.

That looked like giving the Wolves a leg back in to the game, but they almost undid that hard work when Riley Dean failed to find touch with a penalty that would have set up an attacking platform for his side.

Instead, a few tackles later, Warrington conceded another try as O’Brien backed up a searing break by Edwin Ipape.

At 20-6 down, it looked like a tall order but Joe Philbin crashed over shortly before half time to give Warrington hope.

They came out strongly in the second half and dominated territory and possession, but couldn’t find a way to open up the Leigh defence.

And when a brilliant Lachlan Lam pass sent Josh Charnley flying in at the left corner, the game looked beyond Warrington who were running out of time.

In their desperation to force the play in the closing stages, a dropped ball was picked up by Ben Reynolds who raced away unopposed to the delight of a packed north stand.

Warrington are next in action at Magic Weekend a week on Sunday, where they will take on Hull.

Leigh: O’Brien, Briscoe, Hardaker, Leutele, Charnley, Reynolds, Lam, Amone, Ipape, Mulhern, O’Donnell, Holmes, Asiata. Subs: Mellor, Seumanufagai, Davis, Halton.

Warrington: Dufty, Russell, Mata’utia, Ratchford, Ashton, Dean, Williams, Harrison, Walker, Vaughan, Currie, McGuire, Clark. Subs: Kasiano, Dudson, Philbin, Minikin.