Jon Wilkin critical of Super League star’s poor “gamesmanship”

Leigh Leopards are in a tussle with Wigan Warriors and St Helens for a spot in the top two and of course a vitally important home semi-final in the Betfred Super League play-offs.

They are also chasing the Catalans Dragons at the top of the league with the French side leading the way when it comes to the League Leaders’ Shield.

This is why Saturday’s game between Leigha and Catalans was a huge fixture and unsurprisingly both side’s were unwilling to give an inch which led to an interesting moment from Zak Hardaker.

The former Leeds Rhinos star was penalised for moving across the face of Tom Johnstone and taking him out.

This led to some interesting comments from Jon Wilkin calling it “gamesmanship” from Hardaker and claiming “they are all coached to do it.”

However, he was critical of Hardaker for getting caught: “It’s just Hardaker has done it in a way that is too obvious.”

In terms of the game, a late hit from Mike McMeeken and a yellow card saw Leigh nail an early penalty to make it 2-0.

Then, after a Sam Tomkins blunder, an inside ball from John Asiata allowed Tom Amone to tear through and score. He rounded the cover defence for a great try.

Catalans Dragons definitely needed to score next and they came up with a response after Zak Hardaker gave away a penalty. Mitchell Pearce stabbed a kick behind and touched down himself to score.

The Dragons were now on top and stormed 12-8 ahead with a try from Paul Seguier. A great set play from the Dragons with attacking players doubling up on defenders allowing Seguier to carve through.

But then another yellow card for Catalans, this time to Michael McIlorum, paved the way for Leigh to score with Ben Nakubuwai burrowing over from the penalty allowing Ben Reynolds to nail a penalty and make it 14-12.

Then a mess at the back nearly led to a try for Wigan Warriors bound Adam Keighran after a ball bounced off a defender but he was unable to ground the loose ball.

But shortly after Catalans took the lead again when Hull KR bound Tyrone May kicked behind for Tom Davies to score.

May was in the mood in the second half as he dummied, bounced off Ben Reynolds and carved inside wrong footing Ben Nakubuwai who was missing his boot.

The match was settled with another try for the Leopards as Manu Ma’u grounded another kick.