Wardle pierced the Leopards’ resistance after just five minutes, taking a short cut-out pass from Jai Field to dot down for the first time since grabbing a try in Wigan’s last win against Leigh in May.
The score from the decorated centre came in a week that he was called up for an England squad get-together that has had national team boss Shaun Wane calling for greater intensity from Super League’s biggest names as they prepare to take on Australia in the autumn Test series.
The clash of regional rivals delivered on Wane’s demand for a “low-scoring” game which has “teams going at it”.
While Leigh were kept scoreless in the first half, they went close through Frankie Halton, who failed to ground his finish after racing onto a grubber kick from Ipape, while Charnley should have done better to link up with Hodgson when in a promising position after breaking clear.
Leigh finally got their chance to respond thanks to Harry Smith’s attempted 40-20 kick that went long and out on the full.
The hosts made the most getting the ball back inside Wigan’s half, with Tonga international Niu weaving his way over from close range following clever work from Ipape and Lachlan Lam.
Ipape then went over himself at the end of a free-flowing move, with the ball passing through multiple hands before Umyla Hanley sent him clear to touch down under the posts.
And after Charnley had a try of his own ruled out – which would have been the 250th of his career in Super League – Trout profited from an in-goal fumble from Wigan’s defence as they tried to mop up the danger created by a Ipape kick in the final minute.
