Wigan stroll to top spot, star man’s shocker, Lachie Miller blow and more Leeds Rhinos v Wigan Warriors talking points

Wigan Warriors have pulled off an emphatic 40-8 victory over Leeds Rhinos, with a hat-trick from Adam Keighran helping them to victory. 

Keighran scored two of his four-pointers in the opening 15 minutes, before Leeds reduced the deficit through Ash Handley. Stand-in winger Austin Daniel on the half-hour mark, before a Jake Connor penalty goal on the stroke of half-time would turn out to be the Rhinos’ final points of the game. Keighran added his third in the final minutes of the game, cementing the win in some style.

The Rhinos’ defeat isn’t the biggest blow of the evening, however, with star man Lachie Miller forced off the field through injury in the opening minutes of the game, forcing a re-shuffle.

Leeds Rhinos v Wigan Warriors talking points

Wigan get one hand on LLS:

Victory over the Warriors means that they go top of Super League, and simply need to avoid defeat to Catalans next week in order to pick up their second trophy of 2026.

They showed some incredible class at times, dominating the pack battle in the second-half, and making for some great field position to increase what was a 16-8 lead at half-time.

Jai Field, Liam Marshall and Bevan French scored in the second stanza to take a comfortable victory, and the Warriors were flashy in their play too, with some off-the-cuff rugby making them enjoyable to watch.

Leeds fans will all be turning into Dragons supporters next Friday, in the hope that a shock defeat can occur and they can somehow clinch top spot on points difference.

Leeds lose Lachie:

It was the worst start possible for the Rhinos, as star full-back Lachie Miller left the field just six minutes into the contest.

After collecting a routine kick, the Aussie was carrying the ball out of yardage, but pulled up on his own accord as he went into the tackle. After playing the ball, he signalled to the physios, which led to the thousands of Leeds fans in attendance all sighing in unison.

Chris Hankinson went to full-back, with Zak Lloyd coming off the bench. It was a shaky start for Hankinson, whose poor defence allowed Adam Keighran to score his first try.

Connor v Smith:

The two favourites for England’s number seven shirt were on full show this evening, and it was the Wigan man who came up trumps.

Connor had some bigger moments, in attack, assisting Ash Handley’s try, but some lapses in concentration, including a clean drop in good-ball, shows that it should be Smith who is heading to the World Cup at the end of the season.

The Leeds man has shown he can be quite erratic in the big games, whilst Smith remains composed, with his game management an underrated aspect of tonight’s performance.

Bevan pulls the strings as Brodie goes missing:

The biggest difference between the two sides tonight weren’t the number sevens, but the two halves that lined up alongside them.

Bevan French was at his brilliant best, assisting Adam Keighran’s second try whilst constantly pulling the strings in attack. His defence wasn’t too shoddy either, as he made plenty of one-on-one tackles against the Leeds middle unit.

Compare that with Brodie Croft, and he wasn’t far off being non-existent for the Rhinos, as he left Connor to deal with all of the attacking poise. That allowed Wigan to number up and target the half-back, nullifying any threat that could potentially have been made.

His woeful defence on Zach Eckersley in the build-up to French’s try summed up his game, with the future Warrington man simply not good enough tonight.

Nsemba returns but Wigan without Wardle:

One big returnee for the Warriors this evening was Junior Nsemba, who made an instant impact after joining the action 20 minutes into the contest from the bench.

Using all of his size, speed and shape, the back rower proved to be a constant threat on both sides of the ball, and did very well in shutting down Brodie Croft for the vast majority of the night.

However, Wigan were without centre Jake Wardle tonight, in what was a surprise omission from the Warriors line-up. He was replaced by try-scorer Austin Daniel in the bacline, with Zach Eckersley moving to the centres.