Latest News General Match Preview: Leeds Rhinos

Match Preview: Leeds Rhinos

Everything you need to know for Sunday’s Betfred Super League clash with Leeds Rhinos.

The Brief

Wigan Warriors face Leeds Rhinos on Sunday afternoon in Round 9 of the Betfred Super League at the Totally Wicked Stadium (6:30pm kick off).

Adrian Lam’s team will make the short trip over Billinge Hill for their ‘home’ tie against the Rhinos as St Helens stage four games this weekend.

Due to positive Covid-19 tests at Hull FC this week, there was a reshuffle in this weekend’s Betfred Super League fixtures and subsequently Wigan’s clash with Leeds was moved from Saturday to Sunday.

The Warriors go into the game off the back of a 22-23 win over Wakefield Trinity, while the Rhinos were thumped 0-48 by St Helens last Sunday at Emerald Headingley Stadium.

Despite two contrasting previous results, both sides have started the 2020 season well with Wigan sitting in second spot, with ten points from their opening seven games, while Leeds currently occupy fifth place after four wins from their first six.

Team News

Tommy Leuluai will miss Sunday’s game with an ankle injury – suffered in the tenth minute against Wakefield last weekend.

George Burgess, who also featured against Wakefield, is banned after being hit with a one-match suspension for a Grade A Dangerous Contact offence on David Fifita.

After dropping out of last week’s 21-man squad due to a hamstring injury – picked up in training prior to the game – Sean O’Loughlin is also ruled out.

Youngsters Jack Wells, Joe Shorrocks and Amir Bourouh are the three players to come in to the squad this week.

Meanwhile, Ben Flower, who has served his two-match ban for Grade C Dangerous Contact against Hull KR in Round 6, is not named in the 21 as he recovers from a back injury.

Ollie Partington also misses out after receiving a four-match ban for Grade D Dangerous Contact in the same game in early March.

Prop Tony Clubb is ruled out with a neck injury, while centre Oliver Gildart will also miss out as he continues his recovery from a dislocated shoulder sustained last Autumn on Great Britain’s tour of New Zealand.

Here is Wigan’s 21-man squad:

The Opposition

Here is Leeds’ 21-man squad:

Richard Agar has named his 21 man squad to face Wigan Warriors this Sunday at the Totally Wicked Stadium with Konrad Hurrell, Rob Lui and Liam Sutcliffe back in contention with Bodene Thompson potentially set to make his debut pic.twitter.com/yoGu3gonzN
— Leeds Rhinos (@leedsrhinos) August 14, 2020

Did You Know?

Wigan players will be wearing special embroidered shirts for Sunday’s game with Leeds in support of legend Rob Burrow.

The players will adorn a word each of them have chosen to describe Burrow – who was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in December 2019 – alongside their name.

The shirts will be auctioned off via the Wigan Warriors Community Foundation eBay page with all proceeds to be donated to the Rob Burrow Fund.

If Wigan score 18 points on Sunday it will mean the Club has scored 19,000 points in Super League since it began in 1996.

Previous Meetings

Wigan have won their last four games against Leeds and have won seven out of the last ten meetings.

Last ten meetings:

Leeds 14, Wigan 23 (SLR18, 14/6/19)
Wigan 34, Leeds 16 (SLR2, 8/2/19)
Wigan 46, Leeds 8 (SLR19, 28/6/18)
Leeds 8, Wigan 9 (SLR11, 13/4/18)
Leeds 32, Wigan 16 (SLS8-R1, 4/8/17)
Wigan 34, Leeds 0 (SLR23, 21/7/17)
Leeds 26, Wigan 18 (SLR7, 31/3/17)
Leeds 18, Wigan 16 (SLR22, 15/7/16)
Leeds 8, Wigan 40 (SLR15, 21/5/16 at St James’ Park, Newcastle)
Wigan 28, Leeds 6 (SLR5, 11/3/16)

The Wigan players celebrate as Tony Clubb seals victory at Leeds in 2019.

Super League summary

Wigan won 41 (includes win in 1998 Grand Final and wins in 1998, 2002, 2003, 2010 & 2013 Play-Offs)
Leeds won 29 (includes win in 2015 Grand Final and wins in 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010 & 2012 Play-Offs)
4 draws

Head to Head

Here are a few statistics between the two teams from the season so far:

The Stats

Please be reminded that, although the Betfred Super League table has been amended following the withdrawal of Toronto Wolfpack, appearances made and points scored by individual players in Toronto fixtures will remain on players’ records.

Liam Farrell is one try away from making it 100 for Wigan. The second row, who is in his testimonial year, has made 257 appearances for his hometown club between 2010 and 2020 so far.

Joe Greenwood needs one appearance to reach 100 in Super League. The second row has played 31 times for Wigan (2018-2019) and 68 times for St Helens (2012-2017)

Coach Quotes

At Friday’s virtual press conference, via Zoom, at Robin Park Arena, Head Coach Adrian Lam said: “I think Leeds will come out at 100 miles an hour this week.

“It’s a big match for us. We’ve prepped on making sure we’re right – it doesn’t matter who they select – if we can get our attitude and enthusiasm to match Leeds’ I think we’ll be okay.”

Lam at Friday’s virtual press conference.

After six Hull FC players tested positive for Covid-19 this week – causing a reshuffle to the weekend’s Betfred Super League fixtures – Lam was asked about his thoughts on the situation.

He said: “It’s always been a concern. Our thoughts are with the club who are going through the hard times at the minute. Super League have ticked all the boxes since then and it seems to have rolled on well.

“We’re really happy with the protocols in place. We’ve been tested and cleared negative this week, which is great for us.

“We can’t control anything outside of what we do. Our whole week’s preparation scheduled was completely changed but we’ve got an attitude to expect that, deal with it and move on.

“Things are going to change every week, but we’re ready to accept it. We just want to play rugby league.”

Match Officials

The man in the middle on Sunday will be Robert Hicks. The video referee is Chris Kendall.

How to Follow

Due to limited media capacity at the Totally Wicked Stadium, Listen Live will unfortunately be unable to broadcast on Sunday.

Warriors season ticket holders can watch the game live via the RFL’s OurLeague streaming service.

In addition, the game – like all Betfred Super League fixtures in August – will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.

Furthermore, Wigan fans can follow every piece of the action via our social media channels and website.

Twitter (@WiganWarriorsRL) – live game updates and reaction at the final hooter.
Instagram (@wiganwarriorsrl) – live behind-the-scenes action, both before and after kick-off.
Facebook (Wigan Warriors) – live matchday information.
Website (www.wiganwarriors.com) – post-match reaction including match report, and Head Coach and players reaction.

Wigan TV

Matches will also continue to be available – as usual – on Wigan TV, with highlights, extended highlights and full match replays available after the relevant holdback times. There will also be post-match interviews available to watch.

If you’re not already a subscriber to Wigan TV, click HERE today to join. Choose a monthly (£5.99), quarterly (£11.99) or annual (£38.99) subscription with no contract. Pay with PayPal or credit/debit card.