INJURY-hit Leigh Leopards came off second best in the Battle of the Borough with Wigan rattling eight tries in their 40-12 triumph.

It was a tough night for Adrian Lam’s side against a Wigan side, who were stung by the Good Friday derby defeat at St Helens.

But they never threw the towel in, even when the game ran away from them.

A big build up saw a sell-out 10,308 crowd cram into Leigh Sports Village and the pre-match smoke had barely faded by the time Gareth O'Brien dropped a high bomb to give Wigan the impetus.

After Lachlan Lam was penalised for lifting Bevan French Wigan were merciless, with quick hands seeing Abbas Miski squeeze past Josh Charnley’s despairing tackle at the corner for a seventh minute score.

It did not get any easier for Leigh when Matt Moylan was dispatched to the sin bin for contact with the head of a slipping Jai Field, but it was difficult to know what else he could do given the manner of the ball carrier’s drop.

Wigan made that numerical advantage count in the 17th minute when Willie Isa raced on to the ball after French had threaded the ball through the line.

French then collected his own grubber to touched down after Ricky Leutele could do nothing but flap the ball into the grasp of the advancing Warrior.

On the half-hour mark Harry Smith dived under the posts following a Kruise Leeming break to put the visitors 20-0 up.

Leigh responded a few minutes later as O'Brien's kick through was side-footed by in by Josh Charnley with Leutele touching down for the Leopards.

Any whiff of a comeback was snuffed out early in the second half, when O'Brien's kick was picked up by Smith, who offloaded for Field to race the full length.

A wonder tackle from Brad Dwyer held up French on the try-line to overturn a try decision, but respite was short-lived with centre Adam Keighran racing on to Smith’s long pass to cross at the corner to extend their lead.

After Junior Nsemba ran a good line from close range Leigh responded by retrieving the ball from the short kick off. And their endeavour was rewarded when Charnley latched onto Leutele's nice pass to cross.

But that was as good as it got for Leigh with wing Liam Marshall presented with a walk in from Wardle to round off a significant win.