{"id":178284,"date":"2025-10-04T02:07:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T02:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/178284\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T02:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T02:07:11","slug":"super-league-play-off-semi-final-wigan-warriors-18-6-leigh-french-double-books-wigans-grand-final-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/178284\/","title":{"rendered":"Super League play-off semi-final: Wigan Warriors 18-6 Leigh – French double books Wigan’s Grand Final spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bevan French kept Wigan on course for a hat-trick of Super League titles as two tries from the Australian star helped Warriors overcome Leigh to reach the Grand Final.<\/p>\n

French’s first-half double, plus some superb defence in the second period, settled a thunderous contest at the Brick Community Stadium.<\/p>\n

It was a repeat outcome to last season’s play-off semi-final but, while Wigan cruised to a 38-0 victory 12 months ago, Leigh made the Warriors work much harder this time around.<\/p>\n

They put their neighbours under serious pressure at times but in the end last season’s quadruple winners had the composure to book their place at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n

Wigan will face the winners of Saturday’s second play-off semi-final between Hull KR and St Helens in the Grand Final on 11 October.<\/p>\n

After a chaotic build-up, which involved a row over ticket allocations<\/a>, the visitors made the early running.<\/p>\n

They had a touchdown by Owen Trout ruled out in the sixth minute with referee Chris Kendall’s on-field decision of no try standing with video referee Tom Grant unable to find any evidence to the contrary with Harry Smith underneath him.<\/p>\n

It was Wigan who took the lead against the run of play in the 14th minute through French after a mistake by Bailey Hodgson. The Leigh full-back spilled possession in a double tackle by Liam Byrne and Liam Farrell and Adam Keighran put French in for a walk-in.<\/p>\n

The Leopards hit back in the 28th minute through an unlikely source as Robbie Mulhern crossed for his first try in 19 months. Mulhern took a low ball close in from Edwin Ipape superbly in the difficult conditions to storm over without a finger laid on him.<\/p>\n

However, the Papua New Guinea international coughed up a penalty when he blocked French’s line as he chased Smith’s high ball and Keighran slotted the kick to nudge Wigan into the lead.<\/p>\n

And eight seconds before the break, French blazed over for his second try after man-of-the-match Jai Field made the insertion in midfield and fed the supporting stand-off.<\/p>\n

From there it was the Warriors’ rearguard which decided the outcome.<\/p>\n

Trout looked odds on to score after breaking through just after the hour but a brilliant cover tackle from Field saved the home side.<\/p>\n

It summed up Wigan’s defensive resolve and they finished the job with the final play as French put Sam Walters over as the Warriors reached a record-equalling 14th Grand Final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bevan French kept Wigan on course for a hat-trick of Super League titles as two tries from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-178284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}