Leigh Leopards kicked off their 2024 Super League season with a loss as they hosted Huddersfield Giants at the Leigh Sports Village in a very scrappy affair.
Both sides had brought in half-backs from the NRL with Leigh Leopards signing former Cronulla Sharks star Matt Moylan whereas Huddersfield had recruited Adam Clune from Newcastle Knights.
Both men started with Huddersfield also handing debuts out to wingers Adam Swift and Elliot Wallis and fellow NRL man Jack Murchie in the second row.
The controversial ban of Luke Yates meant that Huddersfield were without their captain whilst playmaker Tui Lolohea was another to be sidelined through suspension, offering up an opportunity for Ollie Russell to seize the starting spot alongside Clune.
The only major team selection issue for Leigh Leopards surrounded Zak Hardaker and if the centre would play after having been in court on Wednesday morning on drink-driving offences.
Hardaker copped a three-year driving ban and whilst Adrian Lam had expressed “disappointment” about the 32-year-old’s actions on BBC Radio Manchester, he kept the faith and fielded the centre.
As such Leigh fielded shirt numbers one through eighteen in their matchday squad, the only discrepancy being number seventeen Owen Trout serving as the eighteenth man with number eighteen Ben Nakubuwai on the bench.
Cards cost Leigh Leopards as Giants do enough in gritty game
Ricky Leutele was one of two players for Leigh Leopards to be sent to the sin bin. – Picture by Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Leigh Leopards got the game underway and the early exchanges were relatively quiet with both sides feeling each other out and trying to ensure they stayed on the right side of referee Jack Smith and the new rules.
Kai O’Donnell thought he had scored from Leigh’s first set of six in territory but Jack Smith sent the decision upstairs with an on-field call of no try, leaving the new video referee ‘bunker’ system to make the first appearance of the season.
They backed up Smith with O’Donnell’s knee just touching the dead ball line meaning his acrobatic effort counted for nothing meaning the score remained level as Huddersfield got away with one.
Huddersfield did break that deadlock within the opening ten minutes though with Esan Masters capitalising on a Leigh defensive error caused by a menacing Oli Russell kick, who then converted the try to make it 6-0.
A huge Tom Amone carry from a goal-line drop-out seemed to stoke the fire of both sides with the intensity ramping up around the 20-minute mark and it culminated in Josh Charnley being dumped down by Sam Hewitt, causing yet another reaction from the home players and fans.
The resulting penalty saw Leigh march down the field resulting in Josh Charnley opening his account for 2024 off the back of a smart Matt Moylan grubber kick to the corner. Zak Hardaker failed to add the extras.
The next ten minutes were riddled with penalties and Jack Smith’s patience ended when he finally showed a yellow card and it went to Leigh skipper John Asiata for a professional foul. The resulting play saw Adam Milner dart over from dummy-half to send the Giants 12-4 up with Russell’s conversion.
Early in the second half, there were concerning scenes when Huddersfield’s full-back Jake Connor was caught high by Ricky Leutele when collecting a kick, something that saw the Leigh man sent to the bin for ten minutes.
Leigh Leopards managed to survive the ten minutes without Leutele but it was Huddersfield who scored next with ex-Castleford man Elliot Wallis scoring acrobatically in the corner on debut to make it 16-4.
The Leopards gave themselves some hope late on with a Tom Briscoe score in the corner but it was merely a consolation score with Hardaker missing the extras to leave the final score at 16-8 to Ian Watson’s side.
One major blow for Huddersfield was that full-back Jake Connor failed his HIA and will therefore miss their game next week, whilst Leigh Leopards had injury issues of their own with hooker Edwin Ipape departing after a quarter of an hour with what was reported as a knee injury. Dan Norman also failed a HIA for the Leopards.
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