Category News

Betfred Super League

Leigh (12) 28

Tries: Badrock, Brand, Hughes, Ipape, Trout Goals: O’Brien 3, Hodgson

St Helens (0) 10

Leigh Leopards guaranteed a home tie in the first week of the Super League play-offs with victory against St Helens at Leigh Sports Village.

Tries from Andrew Badrock, Keanan Brand, Jack Hughes, Edwin Ipape and Owen Trout secured a dominant win, which took Leigh above Leeds Rhinos to third place.

Second-half tries from Saints’ Kyle Feldt and Harry Robertson gave the visitors hope but they went down to a third consecutive defeat.

The victory means Leigh will end the regular season in the top four for the first time in the Super League era, although Wigan’s win over Castleford ended hopes of a top-two finish.

In the 12th minute, Lachlan Lam expertly bided his time to set up Bailey Hodgson, who unselfishly found Badrock to dive over and clinically finish a flowing move.

Soon afterwards, Trout thought he had extended the home side’s lead but video referee Jack Smith determined the prop had used a double movement before crashing over.

Following a dominant opening 25 minutes, Umyla Hanley’s charge forward allowed Lam to recycle the ball before Brand stepped inside opposition wing Deon Cross to dive over for Lam’s 40th try assist of the season.

A high kick from Saints’ Moses Mbye caused havoc in the Leigh defence and allowed Curtis Sironen to eventually dive over, but Tristan Sailor was offside in the build-up.

In an enthralling second period, and with Ipape still in the sin bin, Saints seized their moment and Robertson found Feldt out wide to dive in at the corner.

Moments later, Robertson went from provider to scorer to reduce Saints’ deficit to two points. Capitalising on an error under the high ball from Hodgson, he collected a pass from Sailor to race in.

With Ipape back on the field, Gareth O’Brien’s kick was taken under pressure from Leigh centre Hanley, who in turn found Hughes, whose good footwork allowed him to touch down for a decisive score.

A superb line break from Hodgson, one of several during the evening, put Leopards in another promising position before Ipape was handed the ball 10 yards out to barge through the middle of the Saints defence to score under the sticks and effectively put the match to bed.

Leigh Leopards coach Adrian Lam:

“Obviously I’m very proud. It’s a goal that we set at the start of the year – to be in the top four and to potentially have a first home quarter-final of the Super League era.

“I’m just proud of the group and how hard they’ve worked – it’s massive.

“I thought we were in control of most of the game. There were parts of it which I absolutely loved.

Leigh: Hodgson; Brand, Badrock, Hanley, Charnley; O’Brien, Lam; Trout, Ipape, Mulhern, Halton, Hughes, Liu.

Interchanges: Pene, Davis, Dwyer, Ofahengaue.

St Helens: Sailor; Feldt, Robertson, Percival, Cross; Welsby, Mbye; Walmsley, Clark, Lees, Sironen, Whitley, Batchelor.

Interchanges: Lomax, Bell, Paasi, Delaney.

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca says he hasn’t seen either Raheem Sterling or Axel Disasi since the season began and they will remain in the “bomb squad”.

The Italian confirmed the pair will continue to use a different pitch, gym and dressing room from the rest of the first-team squad indefinitely.

Neither forward Sterling nor French defender Disasi was able to secure a move away from Stamford Bridge before the end of the transfer window.

Maresca, whose Chelsea side visit Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday, said: “They are Chelsea players, but at the moment they are training separately and the plan is to continue in this way.

Sterling, 30, was reluctant to join either Champions League sides Juventus or Bayer Leverkusen this summer. His reasoning was he wanted to join another London club to remain close to his family.

He spent last season on loan at Arsenal but the Gunners had no interest in making his loan move permanent. There were no offers from Fulham, Crystal Palace or West Ham despite encouragement from Chelsea, and his club-high £325,000-per-week wages were likely to have proved a major stumbling block.

Meanwhile, Disasi, 27 had strong interest from Sunderland, Bournemouth and West Ham but all three moves collapsed as he held out for a return to former club Monaco that never materialised.

Disasi, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Aston Villa, said in an interview with YouTube channel Carre he was fit and available to play if called upon.

Sterling, Disasi and striker David Datro Fofana were registered in Chelsea’s Premier League squad which was announced on Friday.

Maresca also ruled out Romeo Lavia and Benoit Badiashile as the duo remain sidelined alongside long-term injured trio Liam Delap, Levi Colwill and Dario Essugo.

Newcastle Red Bulls kicked off their new era with a comfortable 26-14 win against Harlequins in the Prem Rugby Cup, in front of a record cup crowd of 9,089 at a rain-drenched Kingston Park.

Newcastle, who have rebranded from the Falcons into the Red Bulls following the completion of a takeover in August, were always in control against Quins in their Pool B opener.

Tries from George McGuigan and Murray McCallum in the first half, followed by scores from Oli Spencer and Alex Hearle in the second, kept a youthful Quins outfit at arm’s length throughout and secured a bonus-point victory.

Danny Wilson took charge of Quins for the final time before he joins the coaching staff of Wales’ national team.

In Friday’s other match, Gloucester registered a perfect opening to their Prem Cup campaign with a 29-15 bonus-point victory over Exeter Chiefs in their Pool A fixture at Kingsholm.

Gloucester had to fight hard to gain control against Rob Baxter’s Chiefs and needed a strong second-half performance to put the game to bed.

Three tries from the visitors in the first half saw them go in at the break 15-14 up, before the hosts ran in two tries from Josiah Edwards-Giraud and Jack Innard, to go with a penalty from the boot of George Barton, to stretch clear.

Yet the night was all about new beginnings in Newcastle, where the Red Bull investment has energised a side that made the semi-finals of this competition but finished bottom of the Premiership last season.