Super League star “one of the best in the world” says Kevin Brown

Super League club Leigh Leopards have progressed to the Challenge Cup quarter-finals after defeating Championship side Featherstone Rovers.

One man who has emerged as a real attacking threat in Super League for the Leopards, Umyla Hanley was the star.

The winger scored in his last two Super League games and in the Challenge Cup he bagged a hat-trick to help send the Leopards into the last eight.

Speaking as Man of the Match on the Sportsman, he said: “Yeah I feel unreal, I wins a win at the end of the day but it was a bit scrappy on to the next round though, can’t complain.

“I think like I say, a win’s a win and we’ll take it in these conditions as well. I can’t complain, can I? I’ve got three in the first half but it comes down to my teammates really.

“At the end of the day, it’s not really on me. That’s my bread and butter, finishing them tries. I just give thanks to my teammates and that really.

“They made it a scrappy game, which we didn’t want, and I bet that’s something that they did want. But, um, and I wasn’t here when they had that rivalry back in championship, but I’ve heard it was quite big. And, yeah, like, they had a good dig in. You can’t complain.”

When asked about the draw, he said: “I don’t think it really matters who we draw really, I think we’re just going to focus on our performance and the only team that can beat us is ourselves really at the end of the day, so we just look forward to the next round.”

Super League star branded “world class”

Hanley was also full of praise of “game changer” Lachlan Lam. He said: “Yeah definitely, Lachy’s a game changer, everyone knows that who watches rugby but he’s unreal for us and I think once we get this full strength team back then we’re going to be very hard to stop.”

This came after Kevin Brown described Lam as “one of the best in the world” in a huge statement on the Sportsman.

He also branded Zak Hardaker as “the best defensive fullback” in Super League.