Leigh impress in opening victory over Leeds

Betfred Super League

Leigh (10) 26

Tries: Senior, Ipape, Hughes, Davis, Lam Goals: Cook 3

Leeds (2) 14

Leigh Leopards hit the ground running in Super League with an impressive five-try win against Leeds Rhinos.

Adrian Lam’s side took command of the game between teams who finished third and fourth last season as tries from Innes Senior and the outstanding Edwin Ipape had them 10-2 up at half-time.

In a game where tempers simmered and Leeds’ Harry Newman claimed he was the victim of an eye gouge, the Rhinos threatened to get back in the game as prop Cooper Jenkins replied to tries from Jack Hughes and Matt Davis early in the second half.

The Rhinos went into the game with nine players missing through injury, including reigning Man of Steel Jake Connor, but edged ahead early on as Chris Hankinson’s penalty was their reward for sustained pressure as Leigh struggled with the new, stricter interpretation of the ruck rules.

After that ragged start, the Leopards burst into life as Ipape broke, Bailey Hodgson injected pace and Lam had the presence of mind to hurl a pass to Senior for a good finish on his Super League debut for the hosts.

Ipape was causing havoc and when he led another attack and fed Joe Ofahengaue, the Papua New Guinea international was on hand to grab the offload and force his way over.

Any words of hope from Leeds coach Brad Arthur at half-time quickly dissipated as, from the restart, Riley Lumb dropped the ball and Hughes kicked ahead to score, with Davis adding another as the Rhinos defence again wobbled.

Jenkins burst through two tackles to expose the Leigh defence for the first time and score, and with a glimmer of hope Leeds went forward.

Newman furiously claimed his eye had been gouged following a tackle and with tempers fraying he was sin-binned shortly afterwards following a clash, with Davis following him for his part in the melee.

Leigh coach Adrian Lam told BBC Radio Manchester:

“First home game, with a few new faces in our team, so it was important that we won in front of our own fans in a sold-out stadium.

“The game went in patches depending on how the referee refereed the game, and I’m not a fan of it. There were too many stoppages and I didn’t really need to make any changes in the game because we had time-outs, and checking decisions, and six-agains. Just frustrating, but they can influence the outcome quite easily.

Leeds head coach Brad Arthur told BBC Radio Leeds:

“I was really happy with our effort, our fight, and thought we had some good periods of physicality, but some detail… two scrappy tries that you can’t afford at this time of the year, some red-zone penalties giving teams a leg-out, at times a bit disjointed with the ball.

“[Missing nine players] takes away some of your cohesion with the ball. Jake [Connor] has been in there the whole time and you take him out and young Browny [George Brown] who last week had to play full-back because we didn’t have a full-back when it would have been nice to play him at half last week.

Leigh: Hodgson; Senior, Niu, Brand, Charnley; Cook, Lam; Trout, Ipape, Mulhern, Ha;ton, Alick-Wienke, Ofahengaue

Interchanges: Hughes, Davis, Badrock, Horne, O’Brien.

Leeds: Miller; Lumb, Newman, Hankinson, Hall; Croft, Brown; Jenkins, O’Connor, Holroyd, McDonnell, O’Neill, Watkins.

Interchanges: Nicholson-Watton, Levi, Cassell, Littlewood.