Leigh Leopards coach Adrian Lam has given his thoughts on Super League expanding to 14 teams following the heavy involvement of club owner Derek Beaumont.
Beaumont was among the Super League big players, along with Leeds Rhinos’ Gary Hetherington, who released a statement confirming the return of Nigel Wood to top-level rugby league in a move that commissioned the ongoing Strategic Review.
Part of that Strategic Review saw the vote at Headingley on Monday where it was decided that Super League will expand to 14 teams for 2026, with Beaumont having coming out since to explain that he views it as a positive outcome.
Adrian Lam has also backed the decision, however, he wouldn’t be drawn on saying too much and expressed his focusing on coaching Leigh Leopards and not playing the politics of Super League.
“I don’t want to talk too much about it, but I will say that I think it’s the right thing,” Lam responded when asked during his press conference about the Super League expansion.
He’d add:” I’m very supportive of the group that voted, and I think it’s the way we can grow the game looking forward. It’ll get more exposure for the sport.”
Leigh Leopards boss doesn’t want ‘distraction’ of expansion talk
Given his club owner’s key influence in the sport and particularly in this decision, Lam was asked once again about Derek Beaumont and his role.
To that, Lam was blunt: “That’s none of my business.
“My focus is to stay on the Leigh Leopards, and it’s going pretty good at the moment so I don’t want to be distracted in any way but I’m sure that’s taking care of itself.”
To say that things are going ‘pretty good at the moment’ at Leigh would be somewhat of an understatement with the Leopards arguably the form team in Super League and now knocking on the door of a spot in the top two and an all-important home semi-final.
Keeping that pressure on will require beating Warrington Wolves, the side who knocked Leigh out of the Challenge Cup in the semi-finals, and Lam confirmed that had been mentioned and would be some form of motivation.
Lam explained: “It’s a must-win game for them, so they’re coming here as a desperate team. So, we’ve just got to match that intensity and make sure that we deliver the DNA of the team that we’ve been at, especially over the last month.
“Vaughan and Dufty had their best games against us in that Challenge Cup semi-final. We’ve got that in the forefront of our minds as well, what happened there.”
🐆 𝟮𝟭 𝗦𝗤𝗨𝗔𝗗 𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗗
Lammy’s picks for the 21 man squad for this Friday’s game. pic.twitter.com/CMpnkCRQU7— Leigh Leopards (@LeighLeopardsRL) July 30, 2025
