Wigan Warriors v Leeds Rhinos: Four takeaways with Maika Sivo frailties exposed

Wigan Warriors’ return to form continued with a 24-4 victory over Leeds Rhinos at the Brick Community Stadium.

After defeating St Helens to reach the Challenge Cup Final, the Warriors backed that up by defeating the Rhinos, and not conceding a point again.

Here are the key talking points from the game.

Never write off the Warriors

A slight tweak to the phrase we know, but everyone needs to learn their lesson at some point.

Every season under Matt Peet, Wigan have had a lull, a slump, a losing patch. This year has been no different, losing four games from five.

Sure enough, the doubters reared their heads. Just like they have every year.

Sure enough, the Warriors have silenced them again, emphatically. Wigan have now just knocked off the two teams currently top of the Super League table, and conceded just four points in the process.

After a blistering start to the year, Wigan did drop off, which coincided with injuries. There’s little doubting that Peet’s squad is not as deep as it has been in previous years, and when injuries bite, it will hurt them more than it does some of ther rivals.

But now they’re something like near full strength, they have found their groove again. If Wigan are relatively healthy when the business games arrive, they’ll be in the mix for trophies this year, there is no doubt about that.

They’re still without Bevan French, arguably Super League’s best player, and Liam Marshall too.

They’ll have ups and downs, but they’re a genuine threat, and anyone saying othersie is foolish.

A frustrating night for Leeds

The scoreline wasn’t pretty. Was the performance as bad as it looks?

The answer is no. It wasn’t. Leeds weren’t good, they weren’t horrendous either. Simply put, they just made too many individual errors.

They started the game superbly, but then Tom Holroyd gave away a relieving penatly and Maika Sivo wandered into no man’s land from a cross-field kick. That was six points.

Jake Connor’s passing radar had a rare blip, and Wigan scored six points off that.

Handling errors resulted in territory for Wigan’s third and fourth tries. Their completion rate left a lot to be desired, so did the penalty count.

Small details were off, and that costs you in these games. In this case, it cost them brutally. But there was still things to like in this performance too. They were tough through the middle, they were good physically. They just got too much wrong.

An off night, but no reason to panic.

Sivo found wanting

Maika Sivo has had a sensational try-scoring start to his Leeds Rhinos career and he has been a revelation.

But this game exposed some flaws in his game. His defence for Wigan’s first try was really poor, positionally and effort-based, not working hard to keep Farrimond in the corner.

And for a man so explosive, his yardage carries were really poor here. They were laboured and lacking intent. That’s not good enough in games like this.

Sivo, barring injury, will almost certainly end the season as Super League’s top scorer, he added another one here. He was also named in the top ten of the Man of Steel standings. However, in big games like this, he needs to offer more.

Nsemba must make England return

He isn’t getting all the headlines this year, but Junior Nsemba, on the quiet, is having a very good season.

It’s hard for someone of his frame to go under the radar, but perhaps it is telling of how much people expect of him that nobody is talking him up.

But he was excellent again here, particularly defensively. His work rate without the ball has gone up and not only that, he’s not missing when he’s going after people either.

Nsemba was left out of the Ashes squad last year and in fairness, he wasn’t consistently at his best in 2025. This year, he’s on top form, and with that, he has to be in the England squ for the World Cup.

He is a threat with the ball and based on what Brian McDermott suggested when talking about his England plans, that means he has to be part of a touring squad looking to be offensive-minded.

His fitness is a slight concern; in the high-octane games he does look to struggle to keep up as games get deeper. But there’s too much upside to leave him out.