Saturday 8 July 2017 08:26, UK
Tom Lineham scored four tries as Warrington kept alive their faint hopes of a top-eight finish with a comfortable Betfred Super League victory over rock-bottom Leigh.
The Wolves will still need to win their final two games against Wigan and Widnes and hope other results go their way to avoid having to fight for their Super League lives in the Middle 8s, but they gave themselves a lifeline with a 50-10 win.
Along with winger Lineham's haul, Ryan Atkins, Ashton Sims, Jack Hughes, Declan Patton and debutant Ben Pomeroy also ran in tries for Warrington with Stefan Ratchford landing six goals and Ben Westwood one conversion.
Leigh, who are already consigned to the Middle 8s, registered tries from Ben Reynolds and Matty Dawson with Reynolds landing one conversion.
Westwood returned to the Warrington side for the first time since breaking a bone in his hand in May, with Lineham and Patton also recalled to the starting line-up. Centre Pomeroy made his debut after arriving from Lezignan and there was a home debut for winger Peta Hiku after his move from Penrith.
Leigh gave a debut to scrum-half Daniel Mortimer following his signing from Cronulla and Mickey Higham and Samisoni Langi returned to the side.
It was the home side who took the lead after just five minutes when Patton's long pass gave in-form centre Atkins the space to blast through the Leigh defence from 20 metres out to score.
The Wolves were then reduced to 12 men when Westwood was given 10 minutes in the sin-bin for a dangerous tackle on Danny Tickle, but the visitors failed to take advantage of their extra man and it was Warrington who increased their lead while the second row forward was off the field with a Ratchford penalty.
Warrington claimed their second try midway through the first half when Dawson failed to deal with a Patton kick and Sims scooped up the loose ball and claimed his first try of the season.
The hosts continued their dominance in the first half and Lineham crossed for two tries in six minutes as on both occasions he collected Ratchford passes to dive over in the left-hand corner.
In the very last play of the first half the Centurions claimed their first points when Reynolds followed up his own kick which took a wicked bounce away from Ratchford, allowing the stand off to regather and score. Reynolds also tagged on the conversion to make it 24-6 at half-time.
The Centurions started the second half brightly but could not turn their territorial advantage into points as they looked to mount a comeback.
And they fell for the sucker-punch when, on their first attack after the break, the Wolves new boys linked up as Hiku sent Pomeroy over and Ratchford converted to stretch the lead to 30-6.
Lineham claimed his hat-trick try in the 66th minute, this time from close range as he burrowed his way through some tired Leigh defenders and Hughes piled on the misery for the visitors as he claimed Warrington's seventh try three minutes later.
Dawson went over for a late consolation try for Leigh but the Wolves finished with another late flurry as Lineham crashed over for his fourth try of the night and Patton also touched down in the final three minutes with Westwood's conversion completing the scoring.
