| Wakefield (0) 4 |
| Tries: Jowitt |
| Leigh (10) 30 |
| Tries: Lam 2, Mulhern, Ipape, Charnley Goals: Reynolds, Hardaker 4 |
Leigh made light of Ben Reynolds’ first-half red card as they coasted to victory over winless Wakefield to earn their seventh win in a row.
Lachlan Lam’s dazzling sixth-minute opening try was added to by Rob Mulhern as the Leopards took a 10-0 lead.
Reynolds was sent off for a punch on David Fifita but Trinity struggled even with their numerical advantage.
Edwin Ipape, Josh Charnley and Lam’s second try sealed the win, before Max Jowitt’s late consolation for Trinity.
The in-form Leopards moved up to fourth before the later Magic Weekend games with their third win over Wakefield this season, while Super League’s bottom side still searching for a victory 14 games into the season.
Lam showed his quality to open the scoring, side-stepping tackles and then beating Wakefield’s defence for speed to race into the corner.
Reynolds missed the conversion as Trinity’s claims of obstruction, before Lam’s score, were dismissed by referee Aaron Moore.
Charnley was held up over the line after 12 minutes but Wakefield’s reprieve was short-lived as Mulhern took a short pass to go over untouched two minutes later, with Reynolds adding the extras.
Wakefield received a double boost when Reynolds was shown a red card for punching Fifita after 27 minutes, before Tom Nisbet was sin-binned two minutes later for a dangerous tackle on Jay Pitts.
But even with a two-man advantage, it remained an error-strewn performance from Trinity. There was further frustration two minutes before the break when Tom Lineham passed up a golden opportunity, dropping the ball when stretching for the line as he looked certain to score.
Leigh kept Wakefield scoreless at the break and stretched their lead seven minutes into the second half with a slick move started by Lam and finished with an inside pass from Nisbet to Ipape, who motored over the line.
Zak Hardaker assumed kicking duties from the dismissed Reynolds to add the conversion, followed by a penalty to make it 18-0 after 53 minutes.
There was lengthy stoppage because of a serious injury to Wakefield’s Jack Croft, who was stretchered off and taken to hospital, before the Leopards struck again on the hour through Charnley for his 16th try of the season.
Lam wriggled out of some tired tackles to add a fifth try with 14 minutes remaining, before Jowitt showed strength to cross late on and ensure Wakefield would at least not end without a point, despite suffering another demoralising defeat.
Wakefield head coach Mark Applegarth:
“[It] sums up the story of our year so far, anyone watching that game as a neutral and turned up at half-time would probably think we’re the team down to 12 men.
“We spoke at half-time about that keyword, as we have all year, composure and not changing how we play because they’re down a man.
“Making sure that we respected possession and we played in areas we feel we wanted to play in and eventually they’d wilt and points would come, but we went out and did the complete opposite so [it’s] frustrating as a coach when those things happen.
“We’ve had a chat in there about making sure you do your own jobs and bring that quality … because we’re not playing as a team, we’re playing as a bunch of individuals and it’s showing badly and we need to fix it up, sharpish.”
On the injury to Jack Croft:
“He’s at hospital now getting some scans so once they’re all done we should be able to get an update.
“I think he landed in a tackle pretty awkwardly.”
Leigh head coach Adrian Lam:
“You can plan all week on the opposition preparing a gameplan but when you go down to 12 men for 60 minutes it completely changes.
“Down to 11 men with the last 10 minutes before half-time where we defended our line, I thought that was a really special moment for us as a club.
“You can’t train those moments and it’s about having trust in each other. I thought the way we scrambled in that period was unbelievable, so I’m really proud of them for that.”
On Ben Reynolds’ sending-off:
“[Reynolds is] devastated, really upset after the fact he realises that he put himself in a position there to be dealt the way that it was.
“I was disappointed as well, it’s not who we’ve been as a team this year, there’s no excuse for that. I don’t know what the outcome’s going to be from that, hopefully not too harsh, but we’ll see what happens on Monday.”
Wakefield: Jowitt, Lineham, Croft, Kay, Taufua, Dagger, Lino, Proctor, Hood, Bowden, Hewitt, Ashurst, Pitts.
Interchanges: Crowther, Bowes, Battye, Fifita.
Leigh: O’Brien, Briscoe, Leutele, Hardaker, Charnley, Reynolds, Lam, Amone, Ipape, Mulhern, Holmes, Nisbet, Asiata.
Interchanges: Mellor, Seumanufagai, Wilde, Davis.
Sent off: Reynolds (27).
Sin-bin: Nisbet (29).
Referee: Aaron Moore.