Warrington Wolves v Leigh Leopards: Key takeaways as Wire prove silverware credentials

Warrington Wolves’ excellent start to the Super League season continued as they advanced to the Challenge Cup semi-finals with a 24-10 win over Leigh Leopards.

Coming from 10-6 down early in the second half, the Wire showed resilience to win again, and move to within one win of Wembley against a much-improved Leigh side.

Warrington are built differently now

Let’s say it as it is, Warrington would not have won that game last year.

The first half was far from their best this year. They made a heap of handling errors and put a significant amount of pressure on their own goal line. Last year, they would not have defended those errors. This time, they went to the sheds level, and having only conceded six points.

After the break, they fell behind. Again, you’d have been very scepticle of their ability to overturn that last year. You would have expected them to crumble.

This year? 18 unanswered points to win a knockout game.

Warrington have started superbly but this was a big test of their credentials, calibre and character, they passed with flying colours.

Leigh improve massively

The scorelines tells you Leigh lost again and a bad season got worse. But this was a big step forward. You can look at it from a shallow perspective and see the deficit was slashed from 34 to 14.

But that was reflected in the performance too. Leigh were back to something like themselves; applying pressure, asking questions, ramping up defensively. This was a good performance, despite the result. Marc Sneyd was very complimentary of the Leopards post-match too.

They did fall short and that was, in part, down to the fact some of their returning top-line players were maybe abit ring rusty and lacking sharpness.

But this was evidence that if Leigh keep their best players on the pitch, they’ll be in and amongst it by the end of the season.

Warrington’s wonderful halfback conundrum

Marc Sneyd has been struggling to get a gig at times this season, but then he comes up with a performance like that.

George Williams was exceptional again, and then on the outer is a generational talent in Ewan Irwin.

What a headache that is for Sam Burgess.

Sneyd’s management of the second half was masterful. He kicked smart, called the shots and produced key assists at the right tims.

Williams is exceptional, no matter what anyone will try to tell you.

Expect to see rotation through the season, but it’s a real asset for the Wire.