Leigh punish sloppy Catalans to earn third straight win

Betfred Super League

Leigh (16) 34

Goals: O’Brien 5; Tries: Hanley 3, Brand, Hughes, O’Neill

Catalans (0) 6

Leigh Leopards fought back from a disastrous start to the Super League season with a hat-trick from Umyla Hanley.

As Hanley, Keanan Brand, and Jack Hughes each crossed the line, the Catalans struggled to turn pressure into points.

As the Dragons’ error count rose, Hanley took the lead shortly after the break, and Ethan O’Neill made his first Leigh try.

Alrix da Costa finally put the visitors on the board, but Hanley added a hat-trick to cap a hat-trick for the win.

Reimis Smith’s early score for the visitors was overturned by video referee James Vella, but the French side’s performance came as close as it could.

Hanley scored at the other end, but moments later he made his season debut, showing good footwork to crash through after Tesi Niu’s outstanding run had made significant inroads.

Catalans enjoyed plenty of territory and possession but lacked a product, as did Warrington’s defeat last week, and two Leigh scores before the half-hour mark exemplified their season-long start.

Luke Keary’s pass was intercepted, allowing Owen Trout to collect Brand and take him off for a 70-meter run to the line.

Ben Garcia, making his 250th Catalan appearance, was then held up over the Leigh line for a third try within 60 seconds.

With a 30-meter run from behind his own in-goal line, it was ignited by debutant AJ Towse, who replaced David Armstrong, and was followed by Hughes via a second Lachlan Lam assist.

As more attacking pressure failed to bear fruit, Catalans’ growing frustration reached the forefront just before the break when Jordan Dezaria was taken to the sin-bin for preventing a 20-meter restart.

O’Neill dropped over the line after a surge from Gareth O’Brien, who kicked five conversions, was stopped after Hanley weaved through some slack tackling for his second.

Adrian Lam, head coach of the Leigh Leopards, told BBC Radio Manchester:

“We made AJ Towse our Super League debut today, and I’m really happy for him. We called on Dr. Armstrong to come in here and do what he did tonight because he was ill when he woke up this morning.

“And in the same breath, I thought Bailey Hodgson was fantastic at fullback.” When it’s their turn, it only gives us confidence.

“It’s great that the group is a quick learning group, but I don’t want to be too ahead of ourselves.

Brogan, Tuitavake, Davis, and Dwyer are the exchanges.

Catalans: Rouge, Makinson, Romano, Laguerre, Cotric, Keary, Smith, Navarrete, Garcia, Bousquet, Sironen, Whitehead, Partington, and others.

Sims, Da Costa, Dezaria, and Seguier swap out.

Sin-bin: Dezaria (38)