Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam assessed his side’s 24-14 victory over Castleford Tigers last night, in a result that now sees them level on points with sixth-place Wigan Warriors.
Wigan do have a game in hand, and could return to that two-point gap with victory over Catalans Dragons later today. For now though, it marks a significant step in Leigh’s progression, especially considering where they were after the opening five rounds of the year.
Assessing the win, in which Innes Senior, Jacob Alick-Wiencke, Jack Hughes and Adam Cook crossed for tries, Lam said to Sky Sports: “It wasn’t pretty at times, and we put a lot of pressure on ourselves with some simple errors, but I thought we defended tough and we hung in there together as a group.
“It’s always difficult to come here and play, especially off the confidence that they’ve got from the week before with the win over Saints. Given the match start wasn’t ideal, we found a way to hang in there and manage the game to win with a scoreline that probably should have been a little bit closer than that.
“I felt that we were really connected as a group and I thought the time off, it’s always hard coming back from that. I saw them a bit lethargic in warm up and tough to get going in the game, but we got there.”
Leopards came up with some big defensive plays, with their middle unit being very impressive – Joe Ofahengaue being the standout performer.
Asked if it was as simple as Leigh’s defence beat the Castleford attack, he replied: “Yeah, pretty much.
“Like I said, it’s a different field here. It’s a lot shorter and a lot more of the time they’ve got the ball in against your try line.
“We talked about having to make one-on-one tackles tonight, and their left edge is as good as any in Super League at the moment with the centre and winger and the fullback with the speed they’ve got.
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“It’s a real tough job, and I thought, without our two star centres, I thought Jack Hughes did a great job on that right edge. I thought he and Charnley did a really good job.”
The result now means that Leigh have won five games from their last six, and with a run of away games to look forward to due to work being done at the Leigh Sports Village, the next month or so is a crucial period for last year’s third-place finishers.
“Though the game wasn’t pretty for us, we’ve just got to keep ticking off the wins. It’s a difficult place to come to and win away from home, like I said, with the confidence they got off last week.
“It puts us equal sixth tonight, albeit for maybe 24 hours, but we’re getting closer, and we’re on the road now for six to eight weeks.
“I think it’s a tough period for us, Bradford away next week as well, but we get a bit of a long turnaround, but these are the games that you need to win. It’s as simple as that.”
