Wakefield win at Leigh to confirm home play-off

Betfred Super League

Leigh (0) 8

Tries: Trout, Senior

Wakefield (13) 19

Tries: Johnstone 2, Scott Goals: Jowitt 3 Drop Goal: Trueman

Wakefield Trinity overcame a disappointing Leigh Leopards to seal home advantage in a play-off eliminator between the two sides next Friday.

Trinity raced into a 13-point lead at the break following a dominant opening 40 minutes with wing Tom Johnstone showing his clinical form going into the play-offs by scoring twice with his two chances of the first half.

Leigh went into the match knowing a victory by 28 points or more would mean leapfrogging their opponents and pinching home advantage from Trinity, but after they were second best in the opening stages, they gave themselves too much to do late on.

The win meant Trinity finished in the top four for the first time in the Super League era as they struck a psychological blow on the Leopards before a repeat showdown in seven days' time.

Early on, Leigh did not deal with a contested up-and-under by the Castleford-bound Mason Lino and Johnstone had the simplest of tasks to slide in unopposed in the left corner.

And Wakefield thought they had extended their lead inside the opening 10 minutes when Jayden Myers picked the pocket of Innes Senior under another dangerous high kick, but Cam Scott was pulled up for an infringement and the try was wiped off the board.

Frustrated by their slow start, ill-discipline began to creep into Leigh's game and after Owen Trout was found guilty of a ball steal, Max Jowitt notched over a simple two points before Liam Horne had a try disallowed at the other end for a knock-on in the build-up by David Armstrong.

Johnstone then scored his second in trademark, acrobatic fashion, diving in one-handed in the left corner and - after missing the extras from touch - Jowitt slotted a penalty after Jacob Alick-Wiencke was penalised for a tip tackle.

Seconds before the hooter, Jake Trueman kicked a drop-goal to give Trinity a 13-point lead at the break, their efforts fully merited.

Ten minutes into the second period, determined running from Senior and then Umyla Hanley provided the opportunity for Trout to stretch over and get Leigh on the board.

Josh Charnley was penalised for a tackle off the ball which allowed Jowitt the chance to put Wakefield back into an 11-point advantage but he sliced his effort wide off the tee.

Great running from Jack Hughes and Horne, just back on to the field, got Leigh in good field position and Lino was sent to the sin-bin for holding on in front of his own posts.

Almost instantly, Leigh made their extra man advantage count when Senior went in at the left corner.

But the hosts' hopes of an unlikely comeback were eventually extinguished when, after a knock-on by Wakefield was overturned for a high tackle, Scott did superbly to stay in touch and squeeze over in the right corner as Jowitt added the extras in front of the jubilant travelling fans.

Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam told BBC Radio Manchester:

"Very disappointed. Never in the game really. We just got penalised out of the game. It was seven penalties in the first half and about the same in the second half and we got nothing.

"There's no agenda to that. I just don't believe it. We haven't been that bad all year, we were just penalised out of the game. It's just outrageous there were that many stops to the game.

"Having said that, we could have won the game still with 10 minutes to go so I'm really proud of the team. It was always going to be difficult to win by 28 points, that was just outrageous, and we didn't ever really mention that.

"It was quite average to watch at times but Wakey did some good stuff. We were disconnected from just doing too much defending off the back of penalties."

Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell told BBC Radio Leeds:

"A mixed bag really. I thought our first half was outstanding. I thought we completely dominated the game. Defensively, we were as good as we have been all year.

"Second half, we get Jayden [Myers] knocked out early on and obviously the game was toing and froing a little bit. Mason [Lino] gets binned and that changes the game but I thought we were really brave there and the game was won in that 10-minute period.

"There's so many big efforts from us that it's a really pleasing win and sets us up for next week. The victory was important. We said we wanted to put down a marker of how we wanted to play.

"I feel like we're believing more and more every single time we play and we'll have a real pop at it this year."

Leigh: Armstrong; Senior, Badrock, Hanley, Charnley; Cook, Lam; Ofahengaue, Horne, Mulhern, Alick-Wiencke, Trout, Brogan.

Interchanges: Wilde, Hughes, Davis, Ipape.

Wakefield: Jowitt; Myers, Scott, Hall, Johnstone; Trueman, Lino; Guler, Smoothy, McMeeken, Lipowicz, Vagana, Tevaga.

Interchanges: Pitts, Faatili, Smith, Williams.

Sin-bin: Lino (65 mins).

Referee: Liam Moore.