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Duffy injury concern as new signings set to play in upcoming weeks

Leigh head coach John Duffy was seriously unhappy with how his side performed in their 44-12 thrashing by Wigan.

“It was disappointing, we practiced really well during the week and went away from that in the first six or seven minutes,” Duffy said.

“I’ve got to be better there myself too, I’ll take it on my shoulders, but we’ve got to put into performance what we’ve done all week and we just didn’t do that.”

The Centurions had a particularly difficult task of stopping Gareth Widdop, who came into his own during the game.

“We knew from the friendly game just how potent Gaz is down that edge and they exposed us a few times down there.

“He’s not a marquee player for nothing, he was outstanding today.”

Duffy did have one potential injury concern though as Matty Russell limped off midway through the second-half.

“Russell turned his ankle in that collision; it’s a bit swollen and hopefully we’ve cleared all the major ligament issue so it could just bruised.”

In a bid to improve their attacking flow, the Leigh boss moved Ryan Brierley to halfback and Blake Wallace to fullback and that combination seemed to work better.

“I think they were all off today, but when we swapped Ryan and Blake in the second half, we seemed to do a little bit more of what we said in the week and exposed their edges a bit.

“It’s a bit sombre in the dressing room, but there’s a long way to go in the season.”

There will be better news for Leigh fans, however, as Duffy reckons his side will welcome a few of the new signings into the squad in the upcoming weeks.

“Ben Flower will be available and (Nathan) Peats too, hopefully James Bell a week later so we’ll get a bit more experience back next week.

“Brendan (Elliott) will be about 3-4 weeks, but Joe Mellor should be alright next week, he’s got a bit of neural pain down the back of his hamstring, but we didn’t want to risk him with it only being round two.”

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