Leigh beat St Helens to book home play-off spot

Betfred Super League

Leigh (12) 28

Tries: Badrock, Brand, Hughes, Ipape, Trout Goals: O’Brien 3, Hodgson

St Helens (0) 10

Leigh Leopards guaranteed a home tie in the first week of the Super League play-offs with victory against St Helens at Leigh Sports Village.

Tries from Andrew Badrock, Keanan Brand, Jack Hughes, Edwin Ipape and Owen Trout secured a dominant win, which took Leigh above Leeds Rhinos to third place.

Second-half tries from Saints’ Kyle Feldt and Harry Robertson gave the visitors hope but they went down to a third consecutive defeat.

The victory means Leigh will end the regular season in the top four for the first time in the Super League era, although Wigan’s win over Castleford ended hopes of a top-two finish.

In the 12th minute, Lachlan Lam expertly bided his time to set up Bailey Hodgson, who unselfishly found Badrock to dive over and clinically finish a flowing move.

Soon afterwards, Trout thought he had extended the home side’s lead but video referee Jack Smith determined the prop had used a double movement before crashing over.

Following a dominant opening 25 minutes, Umyla Hanley’s charge forward allowed Lam to recycle the ball before Brand stepped inside opposition wing Deon Cross to dive over for Lam’s 40th try assist of the season.

A high kick from Saints’ Moses Mbye caused havoc in the Leigh defence and allowed Curtis Sironen to eventually dive over, but Tristan Sailor was offside in the build-up.

In an enthralling second period, and with Ipape still in the sin bin, Saints seized their moment and Robertson found Feldt out wide to dive in at the corner.

Moments later, Robertson went from provider to scorer to reduce Saints’ deficit to two points. Capitalising on an error under the high ball from Hodgson, he collected a pass from Sailor to race in.

With Ipape back on the field, Gareth O’Brien’s kick was taken under pressure from Leigh centre Hanley, who in turn found Hughes, whose good footwork allowed him to touch down for a decisive score.

A superb line break from Hodgson, one of several during the evening, put Leopards in another promising position before Ipape was handed the ball 10 yards out to barge through the middle of the Saints defence to score under the sticks and effectively put the match to bed.

Leigh Leopards coach Adrian Lam:

“Obviously I’m very proud. It’s a goal that we set at the start of the year – to be in the top four and to potentially have a first home quarter-final of the Super League era.

“I’m just proud of the group and how hard they’ve worked – it’s massive.

“I thought we were in control of most of the game. There were parts of it which I absolutely loved.

Leigh: Hodgson; Brand, Badrock, Hanley, Charnley; O’Brien, Lam; Trout, Ipape, Mulhern, Halton, Hughes, Liu.

Interchanges: Pene, Davis, Dwyer, Ofahengaue.

St Helens: Sailor; Feldt, Robertson, Percival, Cross; Welsby, Mbye; Walmsley, Clark, Lees, Sironen, Whitley, Batchelor.

Interchanges: Lomax, Bell, Paasi, Delaney.