St Helens all set for the visit of Leigh Centurions

St Helens welcome Leigh Centurions to the Totally Wicked Stadium as they look to build on their derby day win from last week and keep the pressure on league leaders Catalans Dragons.

The Saints were dominant from start to finish against rivals Wigan Warriors, as the 2020 Grand Final winners didn’t concede a single try on their way to a 26-2 victory.

Regan Grace had opened the scoring for the away side, before James Bentley and John Bateman were both sent to the sin bin following a coming together between the two.

Harry Smith then kicked a penalty goal to give Wigan their only points of the night, before Man of the Match Lewis Dodd crossed after a brilliant one on one ball steal from Oliver Partington to give his side a 12-2 lead at half-time.

Further scores in the second half from Mark Percival and Alex Walmsley made sure of the points for the Merseyside outfit, as Head Coach Kristian Woolf will be hoping for more of the same against the Centurions.

Leigh’s long winless run in the Super League finally came to the end last weekend, as they put in their best performance of the season to beat the Salford Red Devils 32-22.

Going into the game, Leigh were the only team in the league to have not recorded a win in the 2021 campaign, but that soon changed by full-time, with winger Craig Mullen kicking 16 of his side’s points.

Despite being hit with the news during the week that club captain Liam Hood would be leaving at the end of the season to join Wakefield Trinity, Hood scored a vital try towards the end to help his side pull clear of the Red Devils.

Kurt Haggerty will be looking to build on his side’s first win, although he’ll need them to produce something special again if they want to beat St Helens.

Team News

St Helens will be without James Bentley who serves his one-match ban which he picked up in last week’s game against Wigan for striking John Bateman, while Mark Percival also drops out of the squad, meaning Josh Eaves and Ben Davies both earn recalls.

For Leigh, Mark Ioane and Ian Thornley both picked up knocks in the win over Salford, and therefore will not feature, while Matty Foster is unavailable to play against his parent club.

Head-to-Head

The most recent meeting between the two teams came earlier in the season, where St Helens managed to run out 22-12 winners after the scores were level at half-time.

Tries from Jack Welsby and Kevin Naiqama in the second half allowed the Saints to pull away from the home side, but Leigh made them work hard for it that day, and they’ll be looking to do more.

Leigh last beat St Helens in league action back in 2017, where Ben Reynolds’ boot was the difference, as he converted all four of Leigh’s tries to help them on their way to a 24-16 victory.

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