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 local competitors 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 2nd 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 goals from Keighran on an ideal night with the boot - ensured a 3rd league win from 3 for Warriors.


Leigh failed to reveal up during an extremely one-sided 'Battle of the Borough' on a frustrating night for the visitors littered with managing mistakes and an absence of discipline.


Wigan went ahead after 10 minutes - French fired in a short pass for Keighran to cross over from close range on the last take on 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 but the celebrations were interrupted as referee Liam Moore spotted a forward pass from French in the build-up of a flowing group relocation.


French then discovered a little gap in the Leigh backline on the right edge to roll difficulties from Lam and to get Wigan's second 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 outstanding Warriors' 3rd try.


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


Moments into the second duration, Leigh's Matt Davis was required off with a head injury having taken the full blast of a kick to the corner by Smith.


And Warriors stretched their legs right after when a stunning 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 sixth 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 wonderful 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 shot between the sticks before Keighran included the bonus once again to seal a perfect night for Wigan.


Leigh were dealt an additional blow with just a minute staying as full-back Bailey Hodgson had actually to be assisted off the field with a severe looking knee injury.


'Important not to get carried away' - Peet


Wigan head coach Matt Peet informed BBC Radio Manchester:


"It's hard to understand what level the other teams are at. Hull were missing out on a couple of [gamers] last week, Leigh were missing out on a couple of [gamers], so it is very important we do not get carried away at this stage of the season.


"The boys have got themselves in outstanding physical shape, credit to our performance staff - 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 have actually played in my time here' - Lam


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


"We distributed a deal with 6 penalty when the rating was 0-0 which definitely turned the video game totally on its head.


"You have actually 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 provide away those easy errors 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.