Nine-try Wigan Hammer Leigh To Keep Up 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 attempts to hammer regional rivals Leigh Leopards 54-0 and continue their outstanding 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 half-time for the second match in a row.


Further shots from Field and Smith plus one each from Zach Eckersley, Junior Nsemba and Tom Forber after the break - as well as nine objectives from Keighran on an ideal night with the boot - guaranteed 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 littered with managing errors and an absence of discipline.


Wigan proceeded after 10 minutes - French fired in a brief pass for Keighran to cross over from close range 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 right after however the events were interrupted as referee Liam Moore spotted a forward pass from French in the accumulation of a flowing group relocation.


French then found a little gap in the Leigh backline on the ideal edge to roll challenges 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 remarkable Warriors' 3rd shot.


Field turned from scorer to provider moments later, finding space in midfield before establishing Smith to dot down below the sticks and, after Keighran dispatched a fourth successful kick, the video game was efficiently over as a contest by the half-hour mark.


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


And Warriors extended their legs right after when a beautiful line break from Patrick Mago allowed the prop to pass to Smith, who unselfishly discovered Field to complete another free-flowing move for his second of the night.


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


Nsemba then got his name on the scoresheet, getting on completion of a fragile grubber kick from Smith, before Field raced away on a fantastic break and discovered the supporting Smith to dive over beside the sticks.


Hooker Forber got 50-up for Warriors, barging over for his side's ninth shot in between the sticks before Keighran added the bonus once again to seal a perfect night for Wigan.


Leigh were dealt a further blow with simply a minute remaining as full-back Bailey Hodgson had 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 hard to understand what level the other groups are at. Hull were missing out on a few [players] recently, Leigh were missing a couple of [gamers], so it is very important we don't get brought away at this phase of the season.


"The boys have actually got themselves in impressive physical shape, credit to our performance personnel - we were ready for this season physically.


"We've got capability - the video game has actually quickened up a bit so we can reveal it."


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


"Obviously dreadful. That is most likely as bad as we've played in my time here and I believe we were our own worst enemies.


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


"You've got to come here and win belongings and refrain from doing those things [mistakes] so it put us under pressure and it just escalated from there.


"You just can't distribute those simple mistakes and charges early on. We got battered a little 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.