Wakefield Add To Leigh's Early-season Woes

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Wakefield (8) 18


Tries: Tevaga, Myers, Pratt Goals: Jowitt 3


Leigh (4) 14


Tries: O'Brien, Charnley, Alick-Wiencke Goal: Cook


Wakefield exacted a measure of revenge for their elimination by Leigh in last season's play-offs as the Leopards' poor start to the Super League campaign continued.


Leigh, who ended up third last season, scored 2 late shots to provide a tight scoreline but a fourth defeat in five means they stay second from bottom.


They have been hit hard by early-season injuries, with head coach Adrian Lam revealing before kick-off he is down to 18 fit gamers, however they were architects of their own downfall at the DIY Kitchens Stadium with their indiscipline.


A second-half sin-binning for Jack Hughes after they had actually yielded a stream of first-half charges offered Trinity a leg up.


Wakefield led 8-4 at the break. Loose forward Jazz Tevaga provided the lead with his very first try for the club in the 11th minute, with some late footwork taking the excellent Samoan outside Isaac Liu near to the Leigh line to review.


Leigh came close in the 19th minute but Tom Johnstone, making his 200th profession look, avoided stand-in centre Hughes grounding the ball over the line.


Wakefield's Jayden Myers had a for a foot in touch as he released himself in at the right-hand corner after some fine defence from Innes Senior.


But after Caius Faatili spilled possession in a deal with by Liam Horne from the kick-off, Leigh punished Trinity with full-back Gareth O'Brien requiring his method over for the shot to keep them in touch.


Myers stretched Wakefield's lead within two minutes of the 2nd half starting, as O'Brien failed to deal with Tyson Smoothy's chip through and provided the shot to the winger after Faatili's farming kick on the last tackle had actually triggered confusion in the Leigh ranks.


Brilliant defence from Max Jowitt rejected first Tesi Niu, as the full-back got his body under the centre as he crossed the line, and then Senior in the corner.


Leigh likewise had a try from Frankie Halton ruled out for a knock-on by Horne on a busy night for video referee Liam Moore.


But the loss of Hughes to the sin-bin, for a tackle off the ball simply after the hour, showed important as Wakefield made the most of the additional male with Ollie Pratt discussing in the 64th minute.


Josh Charnley pulled a try back with 10 minutes left from Adam Cook's pass - his 258th in Super League - but despite the fact that Jacob Alick-Wiencke crossed with 30 seconds left, the visitors disappointed completing a comeback win.


'Pretty average performance' - response


Wakefield manager Daryl Powell told BBC Radio Leeds:


"2 points is two points but I believed it was a pretty typical performance. We were so unfavorable at the start and got belted for area in the second half when our discipline was quite bad.


"Leigh were terrific, with the injuries they've got, and we didn't back up what we did recently - in some cases that occurs when you've had a big win.


"We can play better than that, we need to play much better than that, we need to enhance and discover some lessons from it.


"We had 33% area in the second half and their line speed and intent was a bit much better than ours throughout the 80 minutes."


Leigh head coach Adrian Lam told BBC Radio Manchester:


"There were some things that truly injured us. The charge count I believe was 7-1 at half-time which was just outrageous.


"It's very challenging to contend when it resembles that but we hung in there. I take pride in them for competing right to the very end.


"It was three tries all at the end. If we kick our objectives we connect the game but it wasn't to be.


"We exist or thereabouts however a long method away - that's how it feels at the moment.


"We only had 11 gamers train this week. We're doing our best. We simply need to discover a win along the method so next week becomes truly, actually important to us.


"It's hard work at the moment but there's no need to panic."


Wakefield: Jowitt; Myers, Scott, Pratt, Johnstone; Sinfield, Trueman; McMeeken, Smoothy, Rodwell, Nikotemo, Vagana, Tevaga.


Interchanges: Storton, Pitts, Hamlin-Eule, Faatili.


Leigh: O'Brien; Senior, Niu, Hughes, Charnley; Cook, Lam; Trout, McNamara, Mulhern, Halton, Alick-Wiencke, Liu.


Interchanges: Brogan, Brown, Davis, Horne.


Referee: Chris Kendall.


Leigh Leopards