Wigan Warriors make the short trip to Leigh Sports Village to face the Leigh Leopards on Thursday night in front of what’s expected to be a packed-out stadium.
Whilst this game was always going to be interesting given it’s the so-called ‘Battle of the Borough’ it wasn’t a given at the start of the season in regards to competitiveness.
Many expected Leigh to struggle in their first campaign back in Super League and the trend of promoted teams going straight back down also hindered their hopes.
Despite that the Leopards have been brilliant upon their return and are actually only two points behind Wigan, sitting on three wins from six compared to Wigan’s four wins.
Kick-off time and TV channel
The game kicks off at 20:00 at Leigh Sports Village.
TV coverage starts from 19:30 on Sky Sports Arena.
Team News
Wigan secured their fourth win over Salford Red Devils last Friday, who beat the Leopards on opening week, and during that game playmaker Cade Cust was taken off.
Matt Peet shifted Bevan French to full-back and Jai Field into the halves but for the fixture against Leigh Cust has been named.
📋 𝙎𝙌𝙐𝘼𝘿 𝙉𝙀𝙒𝙎
Matt Peet has made one change to his 21-man squad for Thursday's @SuperLeague Round 7 visit to @LeighLeopardsRL!
Matt Peet has only actually made one change and that’s the return of Joe Shorrocks, who had been on loan at Leigh for the past two weeks.
Shorrocks takes the place of young Junior Nsemba and will provide vital insight into Wigan’s Thursday night opponents.
Outside of Shorrocks the 21-man squad is unchanged with Wigan being the only side to have consistently fielded the same set of backs throughout the start of the season in Field, French, King, Wardle, Marshall, Cust and Smith.
Whilst Peet adds Shorrocks to his squad, Lam has to replace him.
The man who has been elected to replace Joe Shorrocks is Nathan Wilde meaning that Lam will have a near full strength squad, as it remains relatively unchanged.
Last week was the first time Edwin Ipape started and that could be set to happen again whilst Josh Charnley will certainly be hoping for another hattrick.
