WARRINGTON Wolves could slip to ninth in the Super League table at Easter after going down 18-14 at Leigh Leopards.
A fightback in the last quarter, with tries from Toby King and Matty Ashton, was in vain as the Wolves struggled creatively without injured talisman George Williams.
In a low-scoring first half, Warrington nudged in front courtesy of a Marc Sneyd penalty following a high tackle on Josh Thewlis.
Leigh looked the more dangerous ball in hand, and had two tries chalked off by the video referee – one for obstruction on a Rodrick Tai and a second for offside after Lachlan Lam had hacked on his own kick and touched down.
The Leopards eventually broke Warrington’s resolve five minutes from half-time in some style. They regularly ran the ball on the last tackle to try and force the issue, and on this occasion a step and surge by the brilliant Lam saw him break through 10 metres out, and he found an offload out of the back door for Edwin Ipape to crash over.
Leading 6-2 at half time, Leigh were forced in to a reshuffle when David Armstrong was forced off injured following a clash with Matt Dufty, that he tried to play on from.
But by the hour mark they were 18-2 in front.
More smart play by Lam opened Warrington up on their own line, and Ethan O’Neill managed to reach out and put the ball on the whitewash for a try.
Then as Warrington pressed, Darnell McIntosh plucked an interception and though he couldn’t make it the full length, it set up the field position for a third try. In the end, Warrington couldn’t hold out the Leigh pressure and Frankie Halton went over.
It looked like that was that, but when Max Wood retrieved Sneyd’s short kick-off, Warrington had the territory to notch their first try. Sneyd’s short kick sat up for King to touch down.
It was through King that Warrington looked most likely and when he broke to put Ashton away, the Wolves were back within four points with 10 minutes to play.
But they couldn’t get close enough to hurt the home side and Warrington fell to a second successive defeat.
Leigh: Armstrong, McIntosh, Hodgson, Brand, Charnley, O’Brien, Lam, Trout, Ipape, Mulhern, Halton, O’Neill, Liu. Subs: Pene, Tuitavake, Davis, Hughes.
Warrington: Dufty, Thewlis, Tai, King, Ashton, Walker, Sneyd, Yates, Powell, Vaughan, Russell, Fitzgibbon, Currie. Subs: Philbin, Crowther, Musgrove, Wood.
