Leigh Leopards confirm devastating news

Tonight, Hull KR and Leigh Leopards collide over a semi-final spot against either Wigan Warriors or Catalans Dragons depending on the result between Warrington Wolves and St Helens.

However, Leigh have been struck by an almighty blow going into tonight’s game.

It had already been confirmed that the Leopards would be without star Zak Hardaker tonight and for the rest of the season through a thumb operation but the doubt hanging over John Asiata has seen him miss out of the game as well with Joe Wardle starting at 13.

This comes after Adrian Lam gave the following update on his squad after last week’s defeat to Wigan Warriors:

“Yeah, very tough game but everyone’s got through okay. Tough in the sense of in all areas such as where we ended up finishing on the ladder without a result and just an adjustment to the rest of the ladder.

“I was very proud of the effort and energy as I always am. They were a really resilient, tough team.

“Obviously we had a few key people out in key positions, like Ricky Leutele on the left, Hardaker on the right, John Asiata through the middle and Frankie Holton off the bench. They’re four really important players for us.

“So we had to try and adjust our rugby a little bit to suit. The best way of doing that is to put your best foot forward in a cracker game and everyone get through it and give our best.

“We were pretty close and didn’t get the money but I felt there was a lot of positives in that.”

He also had his say on the controversial disallowed try for Oliver Gildart:

“Yeah, I looked at that and 100% I think any rugby league fan, supporter, media, administrator, anyone involved in the game knows that that was a try except for the two people that counted the most.

“You can’t change that now, we’ve just got to get on with it. You can’t do anything about it, we’ll sort things through the official way on things like that and we’ve just got to get on with it because the semi-finals are here.

“We’ve worked really hard to hold a place in this in the semi-final and the top six, we’ve earned the right to do that and it’s been an incredible journey this year and success and memories, but we’re not finished.”

Despite that controversy, the double is still on:

“I think it’s more about a week-to-week proposition for us. I know we’re capable of doing it, but I think we’re going to put first things first and that’s heading up to a really tough away game against Hull KR in front of a massive crowd that’s going to be very vocal and a very physical game again. So let’s just get through that and then we’ll see what’s next.”

On Hull KR, he said:

“Yeah, it’ll be the fifth time I think this year so both teams know each other inside out.

“It’s just a matter of going there and getting our best performance down and our best 80 minutes that we’ve done since the Challenge Cup. We understand the challenge ahead of us and it’s going to be tough but it’s all in for us.”