Revealed: How Leigh Leopards skated around the rules at Wembley

Leigh Leopards won the Challenge Cup Final in true dramatic circumstances as they defeated Hull KR in golden point extra time to claim a first Challenge Cup trophy since 1971 when they defeated Leeds Rhinos.

It was a dramatic final at Wembley with Lachlan Lam’s golden point drop goal settling the matter between the two teams and giving Leigh the win.

Leigh thought they had the game won however when former Leeds and Hull FC star Tom Briscoe scored what was his eight try in four Wembley wins.

But his former teammate Matt Parcell levelled matters at the death leaving Leigh owner Derek Beaumont “dumbfounded.”

“We were all dumbfounded. So I, and that’s what I thought the players would be,” he said on The Last Tackle.

“I just thought like it’s as if, you know, it’s just been stolen from you at that moment because I felt we were the stronger team throughout the game although we never broke away from them.

“Credit to Hull KR for that because they brought a hell of a game with them and they’d obviously prepared really hard for it; and Lammy just looked like wow and he got up out of my way at the back as well and he sat with Dukesy and Frank.”

This set up golden point perfectly but what you may not know is that coaches aren’t allowed on the field so Leigh found a clever way around that:

“It took me back to being at Widnes in 2004. It was 16 all, the lads are in a circle and I’m like, ‘why is the coach not on?’ I didn’t know the coach is not allowed and I didn’t even know that until yesterday.

“So I’m thinking ‘why has Lammy not gone on there’, and in 2004 I walked on the field I got a meter away from the group thinking someone needs to say something, everything’s invested in this, and Paul Rowley was in the middle of them and I thought ‘I don’t need to be here’ and shot off out of the way.

“So I knew I didn’t need to be in that moment, but I felt Lammy did and then what happened was Lammy sent a message to get the lads to come close to the sideline so he could speak to them without going on the pitch.

“Hearing the lads talk about yesterday, he just gave them that belief that it was going to be okay And we were going to do it and just stick with it. So he was probably the calmest of us all.”