Andrew Henderson explains the reasons behind Super League club’s surprise success in 2023

When a team gets promoted to Super League they tend to go straight back down sadly.

Toulouse Olympique in 2022, Leigh Centurions in 2021, Toronto Wolfpack in 2020, London Broncos in 2019 and Leigh Centurions again in 2017 the most recent examples with Hull KR in 2018 the exception.

However, Leigh look certain to follow the example of the Robins and ease to survival and even challenge for the play-offs after five wins from their opening 10 games.

Andrew Henderson has now explained the club’s surprising success describing them as “the success story” of the season.

“The success story is the Leigh Leopards,” Henderson said on The Last Tackle.

“The way they went about their business last year, what I liked about them was the team they had at the start of the year just evolved as the year went on.

“They probably started picking up those early wins and knew that they were gaining momentum.

“The chairman obviously sat down with Chris Chester and Adrian Lam and the quality of some of the players they brought in mid-season and the back of the season, everything was all designed to make sure that when they got to Super League they were going to have a team that could compete and stay in Super League.

“So far based on the evidence we’re seeing that. They’ve been nothing but more than competitive and playing a great brand of rugby. I think they’re going to be too strong for Cas at home.”