Nine-try Wigan Hammer Leigh To Maintain Strong Start

26 February 2026


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Wigan (24) 54


Tries: Keighran, French, Field 2, Smith 2, Eckersley, Nsemba, Forber Goals: Keighran 9


Leigh (0) 0


Wigan Warriors ran in nine tries to hammer local rivals Leigh Leopards 54-0 and continue their remarkable start to the 2026 Super League season.


Tries from Adam Keighran, Bevan French, Jai Field and Harry Smith put Wigan into a dominant 24-point lead at for the second match in a row.


Further tries from Field and Smith plus one each from Zach Eckersley, Junior Nsemba and Tom Forber after the break - along with nine goals from Keighran on an ideal night with the boot - made sure a third league win from three for Warriors.


Leigh failed to appear throughout an extremely one-sided 'Battle of the Borough' on a disappointing night for the visitors cluttered with managing errors and a lack of discipline.


Wigan went on after 10 minutes - French fired in a brief pass for Keighran to cross over from close quarters on the last tackle after Leigh's Lachlan Lam yielded a set of 6 in his own half for a late shot.


Liam Marshall dotted down for Warriors quickly after however the celebrations were cut short as referee Liam Moore spotted a forward pass from French in the accumulation of a streaming team relocation.


French then discovered a little space in the Leigh backline on the right edge to roll obstacles from Lam and Tesi Niu to grab Wigan's 2nd in a dominant opening 20 minutes from the hosts.


A well-measured kick from Smith was batted back one-handed by Nsemba to full-back Field who revealed a dummy before darting over for the impressive Warriors' 3rd shot.


Field turned from scorer to supplier minutes later, discovering room in midfield before setting up Smith to dot down underneath the sticks and, after Keighran dispatched a 4th effective kick, the video game was efficiently over as a contest by the half-hour mark.


Moments into the 2nd period, Leigh's Matt Davis was forced off with a head injury having actually taken the full blast of a kick to the corner by Smith.


And Warriors extended their legs right after when a stunning line break from Patrick Mago permitted the prop to pass to Smith, who unselfishly found Field to finish another free-flowing relocation for his second of the night.


At this phase, Wigan were playing exhibit rugby league and a miss-out pass from French eliminated 3 Leigh defenders and found Eckersley who walked in for Wigan's 6th try.


Nsemba then got his name on the scoresheet, getting on the end of a fragile grubber kick from Smith, before Field raced away on a wonderful break and found the supporting Smith to dive over next to the sticks.


Hooker Forber got 50-up for Warriors, barging over for his side's ninth shot between the sticks before Keighran added the extras when more to seal an ideal night for Wigan.


Leigh were dealt a further blow with simply a minute staying as full-back Bailey Hodgson needed to be assisted off the field with a major looking knee injury.


'Important not to get brought away' - Peet


Wigan head coach Matt Peet informed BBC Radio Manchester:


"It's tough to know what level the other teams are at. Hull were missing out on a couple of [gamers] last week, Leigh were missing a couple of [gamers], so it's crucial we don't get carried away at this stage of the season.


"The boys have actually got themselves in impressive physical shape, credit to our efficiency staff - we were prepared for this season physically.


"We've got ability - the video game has accelerated up a bit so we can show it."


'As bad as we have actually played in my time here' - Lam


"Obviously terrible. That is most likely as bad as we have actually played in my time here and I believe we were our own worst enemies.


"We handed out a take on 6 penalty when ball game was 0-0 and that definitely turned the game entirely on its head.


"You've got to come here and win ownership and not do those things [mistakes] so it put us under pressure and it simply escalated from there.


"You simply can't offer away those basic mistakes and charges early on. We got beaten up a bit - no doubt about it."


Wigan: Field; Eckersley, Keighran, Farrell, Marshall; French, Smith; Havard, O'Neill, Thompson, Nsemba, Walters, Ellis.


Replacements: Mago, Partington, Eseh, Forber.


Leigh: Hodgson; Senior, Niu, Brand, Charnley; Cook, Lam; Ofahengaue, Horne, Mulhern, Halton, Trout, Liu.


Replacements: Hughes, Davis, Alick-Wiencke, O'Brien.