Tonight Leigh are back in Super League but they are no longer the Leigh Centurions but rather the Leigh Leopards.
Having made some outstanding signings such as Zak Hardaker from Leeds Rhinos and beating the likes of Wigan Warriors to Huddersfield Giants centre Ricky Leutele, the Leopards are ready to come back to Super League with a bang.
It is a tough start though as they host last year’s entertainers the Salford Red Devils who made it all the way to the semi-finals in 2022.
They have only strengthened in 2023 as well even signing Leigh’s Sam Stone.
It is a big night too because of the entertainment with the likes of Scouting For Girls performing pre-match.
Subsequently, Leigh owner Derek Beaumont has described the game as the “biggest ever rugby event” in Wigan as he thanked Wigan Council for their support.
He took to Twitter to say:
“Big thanks to Wigan Council for their support of our towns biggest ever rugby event. Been fantastic to have their support which we value.”
This comes after he explained the rebrand yesterday on Talksport:
“It is a big step, if you stay stationary you go backwards. People think it was just on a whim but it wasn’t.
“A lot of research and work has gone into it. It did birth from just wearing a hoody and someone mentioning it getting a lot of media coverage a guy in his 50s in Leopard print.
“I like to wind people up, so we said let’s have a look at that.
“Really speaking the people we thought would be really bothered by it the older generation weren’t really bothered. They weren’t always Centurions.
“Really from a commercial point of view, there is a lot of eyes on the sport with IMG and if they’re going to pick 12 clubs we look too similar to our neighbours Wigan.
“You see everywhere, everyone wearing leopard print are getting asked, are you a Leigh fan? People are not wearing leopard print because they’re not wanting to be seen as a Leigh thing.
“The good thing with it is you can use a lot of colours with it, you can utilise different colours, red is our colour so is still in there.”
Andy
February 17, 2023 at 12:27 pm
Should that read “the biggest ever rugby event in Wigan” or he was in Wigan when he said “the biggest ever rugby event”
Get better journalists who have a GCSE in English. You make the sport look like a joke.