Leigh secured a crucial top-six finish for the fourth consecutive season after overcoming St Helens, effectively ending the Saints’ hopes of reaching the play-offs this campaign.<\/p>\n
The home side took control early, scoring their first try after 10 minutes when St Helens failed to deal with a kick from Cook. The ball fell to Charnley on the right wing, who easily crossed for the score. Following the conversion, Charnley celebrated by signing a mock contract, and the public address system subsequently confirmed he had committed to the club until the end of the 2027 season.<\/p>\n
Leigh extended their lead just four minutes later through a brilliant break. Armstrong, Cook, and Lachlan Lam combined from deep within their own half, breaking through the left-side defense before Armstrong sprinted in from halfway.<\/p>\n
St Helens responded with their own attacking displays. Douglas crossed in the right corner after finding space, and Harry Robertson’s elusive footwork left the Leigh defense chasing shadows, setting up Sailor under the posts. However, Robertson missed a key tackle moments later, allowing Innes Senior to break clear and create Hanley’s first try. Ipape then drove for the line, and although his offload hit the deck, Cook grubbered in-goal to touch down.<\/p>\n
The second half saw St Helens miss a clear two-on-one opportunity on the left wing. The visitors were further hampered when Percival, who recently announced his retirement at the season’s end, was sin-binned for a high tackle.<\/p>\n
Leigh capitalized on the man advantage, with Ipape barging over after a quick play-the-ball near the posts. Shane Wright then conceded a penalty for obstruction near the St Helens line, and Leigh capitalized again as Hanley burst through three tackles to score on the right.<\/p>\n
Additional tries fell in the rain late in the game, with Alick-Wiencke sliding over before Mulhern charged across for the final score of the match.<\/p>\n
The result keeps Leigh fifth in the table, with a potential move up to fourth place above Wakefield still on the cards depending on next week’s results.<\/p>\n
Leigh:<\/strong> Armstrong; Senior, Brand, Handley, Charnley; Cook, Lam; Ofahengaue, Horne, Mulhern, Alick-Wiencke, Trout, Liu. Replacements: Brogan, Badrock, Davis, Ipape.<\/p>\n St Helens:<\/strong> Sailor; Douglas, Percival, Welsby, Cross; Robertson, Lomax; Klemmer, Humphreys, Horst, Keeley, Wright, Shorrocks. Replacements: Marsh, Evans, Matagi, Knox.<\/p>\n Referee:<\/strong> Chris Kendall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leigh secures top-six spot for fourth straight season as St Helens’ play-off ambitions are dashed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1420,1418,627,1421,1419],"class_list":["post-664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-leigh-leopards","tag-rugby-league","tag-sports","tag-st-helens","tag-super-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}