Super League

Leigh Centurions v Wakefield Trinity: Preview

by
Ben Carney
May 5, 2017

Leigh Centurions welcome Wakefield Trinity to the Leigh Sports Village in horrendous form after seven straight defeats. Neil Jukes will hope that their dreams of a top eight finish can be revived as they welcome a Wakefield side fresh from beating Catalans which ended a poor run of form.

Coming up against one of the competitions more physical sides, Leigh will have to be wary of being overpowered by Trinity’s pack who make the hard yards down the middle, allowing their quick backs to exploit sides such as the Centurions around the edges. Leigh quite simply need to muscle up and their forwards must lead the way, Super League is an unforgiving competition which the Centurions have learned quickly and they must stop the rot sooner rather than later.

Without Adam Higson, Martyn Ridyard, Danny Tickle and Atelea Vea for this match, Leigh are able to welcome back James Green, Gregg McNally, Gareth Hock and Ben Reynolds who all missed the trip to St Helens last week.

Wakefield were hit with a massive blow this week with the news that Tom Johnstone will sit out the remainder of the 2017 after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in last weekend’s 30-10 win over the Dragons. It could set him back in pre-season too with the injury possibly taking eight months to heal, ending hopes of an England World Cup squad call-up. His eight tries in twelve games for Trinity this season have been an incredible boost for the side and he will be sorely missed by the West Yorkshire outfit.

Chris Chester has made two changes to his squad from the victory over Catalans; Johnstone of course will miss out alongside Ashley Gibson with Reece Lyne and Bill Tupou are named as their replacements.

Leigh Squad: Acton, Green, McNally, Brown, Hampshire, Burr, Naughton, Crooks, Hansen, Dawson, Hock, Pelissier, Drinkwater, Hood, Reynolds, Hopkins, Stewart, Tickle, Weston.

Wakefield Squad: Arona, Arundel, Ashurst, Batchelor, Caton-Brown, England, Fifita, Finn, Grix, Hadley, Hirst, Huby, Jones-Bishop, Kirmond, Lyne, Miller, Tupou, Williams, Wood.