Wigan bounced again from their first defeat of the season by thrashing Leigh to reclaim prime spot.
The world champions ran in eight tries as Leigh had been consigned to a fifth defeat of their opening six video games.
Wigan had been smarting from their Good Friday loss in opposition to St Helens, and this ‘Battle of the Borough’ in opposition to their neighbours was by no means really doubtful.
Liam Marshall’s seventh do this season tied him with Leeds’ Ash Handley on the prime of the scoring charts.
The loss to Saints additionally price the Warriors the companies of props Tyler Dupree and Liam Byrne, each banned for offences in that recreation, however any hope Leigh may need needed to capitalise disappeared in a wave of tries.
Leigh started brightly after the kick-off was briefly delayed by dense smoke from the pre-match pyrotechnics, however their first error noticed Wigan press exhausting for Abbas Miski to complete brilliantly within the nook.
The Leopards then misplaced Matt Moylan for making head contact with Jai Area because the Wigan man slipped, and Wigan struck once more, Bevan French’s delicate kick gathered by Willie Isa to attain.
French, celebrating his new four-year contract this week, scored one other from his personal kick, and Harry Smith went in beneath the posts as Leigh struggled to deal with Wigan’s energy and tempo.
Josh Charnley’s soccer-style footwork supplied the returning Ricky Leutele with Leigh’s first attempt to give them hope of a second-half revival.
That dissipated quicker than the firework smoke as Area ran from simply outdoors his personal 10-metre line for a superb first attempt of the season after which Smith’s looping go despatched Adam Keighran over for an additional.
The influential Smith was quickly at it once more, organising 19-year-old native Wigan-born Junior Nsemba for his first Tremendous League attempt, earlier than Leigh’s Charnley grabbed a comfort attempt in opposition to his previous membership.
Wigan wrapped up the scoring as Marshall made probably the most of Jake Wardle’s very good break to say his seventh attempt of the season.
Leigh’s on-loan Warrington participant Brad Dwyer instructed BBC Radio Manchester:
“We felt we had been in it however clearly the scoreboard says totally different. A high quality workforce like Wigan, once they execute like that, are exhausting to take care of.
“There are areas for us to be higher, we simply need to get our heads down and go once more for a giant recreation within the cup subsequent week.
“We’re doing it robust on the minute. Issues are going in opposition to us with accidents and outcomes, so it is actually difficult, as we’re right here to win.
“I simply went on and tried to present the boys a little bit of a raise and I assumed I did that. There have been a couple of errors in there however it’s tough while you’re 20 or 30 factors down, however personally I would slightly go down throwing punches.”
Wigan coach Matt Peet instructed BBC Radio Manchester:
“It was a troublesome problem in opposition to a motivated Leigh, with a full home and the climate coming in sideways, however the lads carried out properly.
“We perceive Leigh have a couple of troops down in the mean time so the beginning was all the time going to be large. As soon as we did that, we put Leigh in a tough place.
“Everytime you lose a recreation like we did final week, you wish to reply in the appropriate approach, and never simply get the win but additionally an enchancment in efficiency.
[On the young players]: “Harvie Hill was wonderful, Junior [Nsemba] was wonderful, Tiaki [Chan] performed his half and it was good to see Kruise Leeming get some extra minutes beneath his belt, so it was a great evening’s work.”
Leigh: O’Brien; Hanley, Hardaker, Leutele, Charnley; Moylan, Lam; Norman, McNamara, Trout, O’Donnell, Halton, Hughes
Interchanges: Nakubuwai, Davis, Dwyer, Chamberlain, Baxter.
Sin bin: Moylan (11)
Wigan: Area; Miski, Keighran, Wardle, Marshall; French, Smith; Thompson, O’Neill, Hill, Isa, Farrell, Ellis.
Interchanges: Mago, Leeming, Nsemba, Chan, Eckersley.
Referee: Jack Smith