Leigh Leopards dealt double injury blow as star men ruled out of key spell

Two of Leigh Leopards’ backs are facing a spell on the sidelines following last night’s loss at Leeds Rhinos, but that could mean a star name comes in from the cold.

Leigh lost full-back David Armstrong and winger Darnell McIntosh to knee injuries during the 14-try points-fest at AMT Headingley.

That’s a double blow for Leigh, whose next two games are against second-placed Wigan Warriors and Super League leaders Hull KR, but McIntosh’s injury could pave the way for Josh Charnley’s return to the team.

Armstrong was hurt early in the first half and limped on until half-time before being replaced.

Coach Adrian Lam confirmed: “He will be out for a couple of weeks now. He has had a bit of a knee injury, a posterior ligament and medial. There’s a bit of an issue there.”

Explaining his decision not to take Armstrong off in the opening 40 minutes, Lam said: “In the rotation stuff I just wanted the team to stay as they were named.

“I think we had six or seven different positional changes, which probably plays a part in the disconnect in defence and the points against.”

Of McIntosh, he revealed: “It is the same thing with the knee. I think it might be medial, so that will probably be a couple of weeks as well.”

Charnley has not featured for more than a month and asked in his post-match press conference if the former Wigan man could step in to replace McIntosh, Lam said: “Possibly. It has been pretty tough for Josh to accept he wasn’t in the team there and this might be his opportunity to get back in, but we will wait and see.”

Leigh Leopards boss reflects on defeat

The defeat, six days after a tough win at Catalans Dragons, meant Leigh dropped below Rhinos into fourth place in the table.

The visitors scored six tries, with Keanan Brand grabbing a hat-trick, but Lam conceded their defence wasn’t on point.

“It was a weird game,” he reflected. “I think we looked lethargic from last week – in that heat and a short turnaround. We only trained once and that’s always the fear, but we looked like we hadn’t played together at times.

“I didn’t get angry at them in the changing room. I think there’s reasons behind it so we will move on quickly and address it on Monday/Tuesday.”

Lam admitted scoring 30 points should have been enough to win the match.

He said: “It just shows we are not connected as a group, some of the things we were doing were uncharacteristic, but having said that, we scored some really good tries. and we never gave up. We just didn’t seem like we were at the game at all.”

Of Brand, Lam enthused: “He was outstanding, apart from the first error of the game.

“His off-season was outstanding and he has earned that spot on the right, which made Darnell move to the other side.

“He and Umyla [Hanley] have been doing some good things on that right-edge. I am really proud of them.”