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 step of revenge for their removal by Leigh in last season's play-offs as the Leopards' poor start to the Super League project continued.


Leigh, who completed third last season, scored two late shots to deliver a tight scoreline however a 4th defeat in 5 methods they stay 2nd from bottom.


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


A second-half sin-binning for Jack Hughes after they had actually conceded a stream of first-half penalties provided Trinity an upper hand.


Wakefield led 8-4 at the break. Loose forward Jazz Tevaga provided the lead with his 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 discuss.


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


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


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


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


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


Leigh also undertook from Frankie Halton ruled out for a knock-on by Horne on a hectic night for video referee Liam Moore.


But the loss of Hughes to the sin-bin, for a deal with off the ball simply after the hour, showed vital as Wakefield took advantage of the additional man with Ollie Pratt reviewing in the 64th minute.


Josh Charnley pulled a try back with 10 minutes left from Adam Cook's pass - his 258th in Super League - however even though Jacob Alick-Wiencke crossed with 30 seconds left, the visitors fell short of completing a resurgence win.


'Pretty average performance' - response


Wakefield manager Daryl Powell informed BBC Radio Leeds:


"2 points is two points however I believed it was a beautiful average efficiency. We were so negative at the start and got belted for territory in the second half when our discipline was pretty poor.


"Leigh were great, with the injuries they have actually got, and we didn't support what we did recently - sometimes that occurs when you have actually had a big win.


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


"We had 33% territory in the 2nd half and their line speed and intent was a little bit much better than ours throughout the 80 minutes."


Leigh head coach Adrian Lam informed BBC Radio Manchester:


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


"It's really challenging to compete when it's like that however we hung in there. I'm happy of them for contending right to the very end.


"It was 3 attempts all at the end. If we kick our goals we connect the video game however it wasn't to be.


"We're there or thereabouts however a long way away - that's how it feels at the minute.


"We only had 11 gamers train today. We're doing our best. We simply need to find a win along the way so next week becomes truly, really important to us.


"It's effort 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, .


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