The Leigh comments that Salford fans will not love

England hopeful Robbie Mulhern has revealed Leigh Leopards’ goal as they chase the Super League play-offs. Last Sunday’s 26-0 Magic Weekend mauling of Salford Red Devils lifted Leigh to seventh in the table with five rounds left to overhaul either Salford, Catalans Dragons or St Helens, who are all three points ahead.

“I think we can do it,” Mulhern, the ex-Leeds Rhinos, Hull KR and Warrington Wolves forward, told Serious About Rugby League. “We obviously need some results to go our way, but that’s the nature of sport.

“There’s no reason why we can’t make the six if we keep playing like that [against Salford]. Our goal is to win five from five, like it will be for any team, so hopefully we can get in.”

Leigh lost seven of their first eight league games this year, so qualifying for the play-offs would be an impressive achievement.

“Injuries are part of sport,” Mulhern reflected. “We had a really good run last year where a lot of our main players barely missed a game, then we started this year and it was the exact opposite.

“It shows the strength and the unity we’ve got that we’ve managed to overcome that and play some really good rugby in the back half of the season.”

The dominant performance at Elland Road underlined Leigh’s status as one of the top-flight’s form sides and Mulhern reckons they are coming good at the right time.

“Salford are a top team and they’ve got threats all over the park,” he noted. “We showed them a lot of respect, they got a couple of calls against them – a couple of sin-bins – and I thought we managed that period really well.

“We got a little bit pass-happy at times, but in the main we really made the most of it and we got into a good position at half-time, then we kept control in the second half and ended up with a decent result. To keep a side like Salford to nil was a really good reflection for us.”

Leopards visit another team with an impressive Magic victory under their belt, London Broncos, on Sunday. Super League’s bottom club have won two of their last three games, including a 29-4 success against Hull FC at Elland Road and Mulhern warned: “When we played them at our place a few weeks ago we realised how tough they are.

“They’ve got big bodies all over the field and they compete for everything; there’s no way we’ll be going down there with a lax attitude, we’ll be preparing for them as we do everyone else.”

A play-off push would boost Mulhern’s hopes of featuring for England in this autumn’s two-Test series against Samoa. He played in the third game against Tonga last year and insisted: “I think I have been playing all right.

“I got to play in that last Test and just being in the camp for the Tonga series gave me a real taste for it. Realistically, I might only have five or six years left playing; I am 30 in October, so I want to be involved in as many of those camps as I can. Hopefully, if I keep playing well I’ll be in with a shout. If not, I’ll try again next year.”