WARRINGTON Wolves shot themselves in the foot more times than they will care to remember in the 30-12 derby defeat to Leigh Leopards.
The sloppy slow-starting Wire were always chasing the game after falling 14-0 behind in the opening 25 minutes and trailing 20-6 in the closing moments of the first half.
Leigh had two tries disallowed in the opening quarter, so things could have been a lot worse for a Wire side that were being played off the park and showing signs of a hangover from the Challenge Cup sixth-round win at Catalans Dragons six days earlier.
The Leigh forwards got on top pretty quickly and in scrum half Lachlan Lam they had an orchestrator at the top of his game.
Warrington paid the price for error after error in their own half, where the vast majority of the first period was played.
All three Leigh tries had come after a set in which The Wire had fumbled, thrown a forward pass or conceded a penalty.
Leigh made their possession and territory count with some harder running, fiercer defence and slick well-drilled attacking ventures, with ex-Wolves man Gareth O’Brien scoring two of the touchdowns.
The Wire were counting their blessings at the interval when a converted Joe Philbin try with the last play of the half left the game still wide open at 20-12 – much more than the visitors deserved.
There was more purpose, intent and composure about Wire as the second half got going.
They did put Leigh under a lot of pressure without creating clear-cut openings, although they scrambled over the line twice but were held up by home defenders.
The next try was going to be crucial and either take the game away from Daryl Powell’s side or leave Leigh nervously hanging on.
As Leigh achieved a rare sortie into primrose and blue territory in the second half the ball went from one side of the field to the other for Lam to deliver a peach of a pass for ex-Warrington winger Josh Charnley to dive over in the corner.
Images show Charnley was in touch when he grounded the ball but nobody could argue that Leigh deserved the win that followed.
This Wire team have a habit of struggling when the play-the-balls are slowed down by the opposition defence, and it seems sides know they can get away with that when Chris Kendall is refereeing.
Not the result we wanted last night but a huge thank you to the travelling 2,000 Wire fans for your support 👏🐺 pic.twitter.com/0X3GIGNFOy
— Warrington Wolves (@WarringtonRLFC) May 27, 2023
The only player who seemed to be able to cause Leigh problems with the ball was George Williams, who scored a wonder try in the first half, but when the pack is being dominated like it was on Friday then he can’t do it all on his own and it gave his half-back partner Riley Dean little opportunity to show his abilities on his first appearance of the season.
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