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 9 attempts to hammer regional rivals Leigh Leopards 54-0 and continue their impressive 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 tries from Field and Smith plus one each from Zach Eckersley, Junior Nsemba and Tom Forber after the break - along with 9 objectives from Keighran on a perfect night with the boot - ensured a third league win from 3 for Warriors.


Leigh stopped working to reveal up during a very one-sided 'Battle of the Borough' on a frustrating night for the visitors littered with dealing with mistakes and a lack of discipline.


Wigan went ahead after 10 minutes - French fired in a short pass for Keighran to cross over from close variety on the last tackle after Leigh's Lachlan Lam conceded a set of six in his own half for a late shot.


Liam Marshall dotted down for Warriors soon after but the events were cut brief as referee Liam Moore identified a forward pass from French in the accumulation of a flowing team move.


French then found a small space in the Leigh backline on the right edge to roll challenges from Lam and Tesi Niu to get 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 showed a dummy before darting over for the excellent Warriors' 3rd shot.


Field turned from scorer to supplier moments later, discovering room in midfield before establishing Smith to dot down beneath the sticks and, after Keighran dispatched a fourth effective kick, the game was successfully 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 taken the complete force of a kick to the corner by Smith.


And Warriors stretched their legs right after when a beautiful line break from Patrick Mago enabled the prop to pass to Smith, who unselfishly found Field to end up another free-flowing relocation for his second of the night.


At this stage, Wigan were playing exhibition rugby league and a miss-out pass from French eliminated 3 Leigh protectors and discovered Eckersley who strolled in for Wigan's sixth 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 fantastic break and found the supporting Smith to dive over beside the sticks.


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


Leigh were dealt an additional blow with just a minute staying as full-back Bailey Hodgson needed to be helped off the field with a serious looking knee injury.


'Important not to get carried away' - Peet


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 few [gamers] recently, Leigh were missing a couple of [gamers], so it is very important we don't get carried away at this phase of the season.


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


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


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


"Obviously dreadful. That is probably as bad as we have actually played in my time here and I think we were our own worst opponents.


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


"You've got to come here and win belongings and not do those things [errors] so it put us under pressure and it just intensified from there.


"You just can't hand out those simple mistakes and penalties early on. We got battered 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.