Leigh Leopards produced arguably their best performance of season to see off Super League table toppers Hull KR 28-10 at Leigh Sports Village.
Here’s our talking points.
Grand Final challengers?
Make no mistake, Leigh Leopards deserved this one, with Adrian Lam’s side picking up another huge win on home soil. They outperformed the league leaders in every area of the field and in doing so they underlined their status as a legitimate Grand Final threat.
Most expect Wigan Warriors to take on Hull KR at Old Trafford but Leigh have just beaten both of them in the last two rounds and that goes to show that anything could happen in a play-off scenario.
Leigh were the best side from the off and Ethan O’Neill got the scoreboard ticking over as he leapt over Danny Richardson to collect Lachlan Lam’s kick and touch down. Umyla Hanley capped a fine first half individually with a try as he beat Jack Broadbent to touch down and Keanan Brand got Leigh’s third with a superb reach.
Rovers scored at what looked like a crucial point of the game through Kelepi Tanginoa, but Leigh responded with a moment of magic from Tesi Niu, who slipped around James Batchelor and broke for 60m before finding Lam who finished emphatically.
And, Josh Charnley made sure of it as he touched down for his 250th Super League try in the corner and he got his 251st in the final seconds.
To a man Leigh deserve credit but Lam, Bailey Hodgson, Joe Ofahengaue, Niu, Hanley were particularly impressive.
Bizarre referee moment
There was a point of confusion towards the end of the game as a melee broke out on the halfway line close to the dugouts. Replays showed Jez Litten shoulder charging Lam in the back off the ball and that kick-started a bit of pushing and shoving.
Litten had to be shown a yellow card, but as the referees were assessing the footage, the hooker left the field for a HIA, meaning he couldn’t be sin-binned. His replacement Micky McIlorum was the man who was punished then, with Liam Moore informing the veteran that he couldn’t come on until he’d served Litten’s 10 minutes.
Out of sorts Rovers
It would be easy to point to the absence of Mikey Lewis on Saturday and yes, Rovers missed his ingenuity, strike and attacking prowess in the north west sunshine. But, there were plenty of other factors behind a performance that was a million miles from what we’ve come to expect from the Robins.
Knock-ons, errors and lapses in judgement and communication plagued their performance and while they had to deal with a lot of adversity in terms of personnel, they were second best and got what they deserved. To sum up just what a strange display this was from KR, the Robins missed 19 tackles in the first half alone, which is so uncharacteristic.
Mikey Lewis is expected to return next week to face Catalans Dragons in Perpignan and that will go some way towards fixing things with the ball in hand. But, Rovers have a few things to fix up after successive losses.
Is this the slump that Rovers were expected to have after being so intensely good for so long?
KR concern
Lewis was always going to miss this one, but there was concern before kick off when Rhyse Martin was left off the team sheet. The back-rower only returned from a long-term quad injury a couple of weeks ago and his absence raised some questions that Willie Peters will answer after the games.
Things got worse for KR when Danny Richardson left the field after 16 minutes with a lower leg injury, forcing Rovers to play with just 16 men for a majority of the game. Jez Litten failed a HIA too and won’t feature next week.
League Leaders’ Shield race blown wide open
When Leigh Leopards beat Wigan, the League Leaders’ Shield race looked over with KR having the opportunity to move six points clear against Leeds Rhinos. However, Rovers lost against Leeds and they followed that up with another defeat at Leigh.
That means Wigan now sit just two points behind the Robins in the league with nine games remaining and one of those games is against Willie Peters’ side at the Brick Community Stadium.
FULL TIME and Leopards have taken the W!🐆 pic.twitter.com/z2c1j2RrCx
— Leigh Leopards (@LeighLeopardsRL) July 12, 2025
