Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam has say on new Super League rule

Leigh Leopards have shown what they can do in the 2023 Super League season when a late Zak Hardaker try allowed the Leopards to defeat the Leeds Rhinos 14-12.

After the game, Adrian Lam spoke to the press and said that he was “proud” of the performance and believed it showed that the Leopards can compete in Super League.

The Leopards boss did say that they can’t get carried away.

He said: “We showed that we can compete at this level. We’ve trained well as a group. There are 11 new faces in the squad so it was like starting again. It wasn’t perfect, it was a bit clunky but to hang in there and win it at the end was awesome.

“I have worked really hard to get them players here so I know exactly what they’re about but tonight was making sure we connected well as a team with so many new faces

“There’s a lot of experience like Zak Hardaker, Oliver Holmes and Gareth O’Brien. They’ve all played a lot of games, we didn’t have Tom Briscoe, Jack Hughes and Edwin Ipape so to have them to come back in is great.

“I said that the result wasn’t important but the closer we got to the end that changed. I said to them if we were close with 20 minutes to go, to go for it. To execute at the end that was awesome. I am really proud of them.

“They had a lot of changes, we aren’t going to get too ahead of ourselves.”

“We’re going to be a team that can compete.”

During the game there was another opportunity for a new beginning as Leigh Leopards made their first appearance.

Gareth O’Brien needed his head bandaging begging the question, should the green card have come out after the rules around this have become stricter to stop players causing a break in play?

There was a slight delay but as O’Brien wasn’t impacting play, the green card was not shown.

After the game, Lam had his say on these new rules:

“I am open about the situation. I was glad they kept playing today. A lot of coaches have complained about the strategy of delaying the game and the timing so I think we are heading in the right direction with that.”