Warrington Wolves 12-34 Leigh Leopards: Keanan Brand hat-trick helps Leopards tighten grip on top four spot
Warrington Wolves fell to a 12-34 loss vs Leigh Leopards: Leigh on course for home tie in play-off eliminators; Loss comes after the Wolves backed Sam Burgess; It was Stefan Ratchford's final home game for the club; Watch every Super League match live on Sky Sports
Last Updated: 06/09/25 6:24pm
Keanan Brand scored a hat-trick of tries as Leigh tightened their grip on a Super League top-four spot with a comfortable 34-12 victory over Warrington.
Matt Davis, Umyla Hanley and Bailey Hodgson also crossed at the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Saturday as the Leopards condemned the error-prone Wolves to a sixth defeat in seven games. Gareth O'Brien kicked five goals.
The result increased fourth-placed Leigh's lead over St Helens in fifth to three points with two regular-season games remaining, putting them firmly on course for a home tie in the play-off eliminators.
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For Warrington it was another dismal occasion coming after last week's embarrassment by Salford, with the scoreline made slightly respectable by late tries for Toby King and Josh Thewlis.
They at least gave veteran Stefan Ratchford, who announced his retirement earlier this week, the chance to take his goal tally for the club to 649 with two conversions in what was his final home game.
Nevertheless, it was not the way the 37-year-old would have wanted to say farewell and, with Warrington out of play-off contention, he now only has two away games remaining with the club for whom he has made 358 appearances.
The vote of confidence given to head coach Sam Burgess this week by the Warrington hierarchy had little effect as Leigh made almost all the running.
Warrington's afternoon got off to a bad start when Marc Sneyd put the opening kick-off out on the full. Matt Dufty then spilled a high ball and Brand opened the scoring out wide.
Things got worse for Warrington as highly-rated youngster Leon Hayes, making only his second appearance after a 16-month injury lay-off, was forced off injured, which Burgess later revealed was a broken arm.
The Wolves continued to invite more trouble as both Josh Thewlis and Jake Thewlis lost possession, but Leigh failed to make those openings count.
The hosts finally got into the Leigh half after a break by Luke Yates, but Sam Stone squandered the opportunity by knocking on, a mistake which - to the frustration of the home fans - was later repeated by Sam Powell and Lachlan Fitzgibbon.
Leigh punished Warrington for their tardiness when Davis touched down from Edwin Ipape's short-range kick.
Leigh thought they had scored again after Dufty failed to claim a Lachlan Lam kick, allowing Jack Hughes in, but the Warrington full-back was impeded.
The reprieve proved only brief as Leigh attacked again and Brand produced a spectacular diving finish in the corner from O'Brien's long cut-out pass.
Hanley put the result beyond doubt following a superb body swerve and charge to the line and boos rang out from the Wire fans as Hodgson grabbed another.
Warrington stemmed the flow as King and Josh Thewlis found gaps late on, but Brand had the final say two minutes from time.
Burgess: Board took strong position in backing me
Warrington Wolves head coach Sam Burgess:
"I am not sure the scoreline reflects some of the effort but we were down on troops, we lost Leon [Hayes] early.
"I am proud of the spirit, we played with a bit more of something today.
"As silly as it sounds with the scoreline, we just missed a bit of quality, there is no doubt about that.
"I knew I had [the support of the chairman] anyway. It has been a challenging year in many ways but we have got to really reflect on my influence in that.
"We have always had a great unit of myself, the board, the chairman, the owner - we have got a very open relationship.
"It was a strong position for them to take considering the performances over the last couple of weeks which have just not been good enough but today there was a bit more effort in the side."
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