After spending 2022 in the Betfred Championship, Leigh are back in Super League with a brand new moniker after a rebranding exercise over the winter saw them renamed as the Leopards, owner Derek Beaumont´s favourite animal.

Leigh have spent big on players and have every intention on shrugging off their ´yo-yo´ club reputation and maintaining their position in the topflight for the foreseeable future and many pundits think that their current squad will be up to the task.

Tonight´s round one fixture at the Leigh Sports Village saw them taking on near neighbours the Salford Red Devils who are under the stewardship of Paul Rowley who continues to build and improve his understated outfit.

A place in Super League 2023 was the prize as massive favourites Leigh Centurions took on massive underdogs Batley Bulldogs at the Leigh Sports Village in the final game of the domestic calendar.

Batley sprang an enormous surprise last weekend when they eliminated the Featherstone Rovers to take their place in the Million Pound Game, but if they were a long shot last week, this week the target was beyond the vision of mortal men.

In the regular season, Batley had scored just one try against Leigh in the league, while conceding a massive one hundred and sixteen points to them.

The bookies gave the Bulldogs a forty point start on the coupon and many pundits were predicting that it might could be considerably worse for them in what promised to be the most one-sided Championship Grand Final of all time.

Leigh Centurions entertained York City Knights as the Betfred Championship play-off semifinals got under way at Leigh Sports Village as clear favourites - to win both the match and next week’s Grand Final for another crack at Super League.

They had led the table throughout the second half of the season and finished three points clear of second placed featherstone; and eight ahead of today’s opponents, who were sixth in the table after the regular season.

York may have arrived with ideas of their own, having won four on the trot - including beating third-placed Halifax with an outstanding performance in the first round of the play-offs last week.

But they did lose by 100 points to Leigh in the regular season just four weeks ago.

The final game of the Summer Bash at Headingley faw first take on second in a game billed as 'the main event' – a match that had neutrals salivating with Leigh having come into their own after an early season which saw Featherstone dominate the league.

Rovers coach Brian McDermott had no doubts about the game he was facing, naming four forwards on his interchange bench.

The Monday evening televised Premier Sports game between the top two in the Championship saw Featherstone Rovers travel to Leigh Centurions for an encounter which had more of a game of the season feel to it, than just a boring old game of the round.

The Centurions only league loss of the season was the round two defeat away at Featherstone, while it was the Centurions who emerged with the Trophy when the two sides met in the 1895 Cup Final a couple of short weeks ago.

Honours shared so far in 2022 but this game would determine who sat at the top of the league at the end of round fifteen, and who was in pole position to top the table come the end of the season.

The home side were big favourites with the bookies, but despite several injuries it would be a fool that would write off Brian McDermott’s flat cappers from taking home the points.

Fresh from their stunning AB Sundecks 1895 Trophy win over the Featherstone Rovers, Leigh Centurions travelled up the M6 in a ´jubilant´ mood with the aim of taking two points off an impressive Barrow Raiders side who are still in the top half of the table as the season mid-stage approaches.

The Centurions made several changes from the side which triumphed at the Tottenham Stadium with Brand, Roberts, Hitchcox, Hingano, Amone, Ipape, Nakubuwai, and O´Donnell all named in the starting thirteen.

Barrow too were forced into a handful of changes due to injuries.

Leigh needed a win to have the chance of going top, but more likely maintaining the pressure on Featherstone, while a win for Leigh could lift them into fifth spot should Whitehaven beat the Batley Bulldogs.

The odds were on a Leigh win.

 

The AB Sundecks 1895 Final between Featherstone Rovers and Leigh Centurions was so much more than a curtain raiser for the Betfred Challenge Cup Final which would take place later in the afternoon at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, it was a battle between the top two sides in the Championship and the result would reverberate much further than this one sunny Saturday afternoon out in the big smoke.

It was a battle of two experienced coaches with neither Adrian Lam nor Brian McDermott strangers to major finals, McDermott with the upper hand and a record of six major finals wins as a player, and seven as a coach.

This was the first time in its three-year history that Leigh have made it to the final, but they were facing a Featherstone side who were defending the Trophy which they picked up last season thanks to their 41-34 win over the York City Knights.

 

It was fifth v second when Batley Bulldogs welcomed Leigh Centurions to slope at The Foxes Biscuits Stadium as round 11 of the Betfred Championship concluded in front of the Premier Sports cameras.

The Bulldogs entered the match unbeaten in their last five games, having drawn one game when they became the only team in the league to take a point off Featherstone back in March.

Leigh's only loss in the  past six weeks was to Super League club Hull KR in the sixth round of the Challenge Cup.

Leigh kicked off down the hill while the hosts had first use of the ball - faced with the challenge of carring it 100m up the field and up nine feet in altitude in the first half.

The Bulldogs were the first to make a mistake though, when Johnny Campbell knocked on trying to collect a high kick in the corner.

Featherstone Rovers awaited the winners of the second AB Sundecks 1895 Cup game between the Sheffield Eagles and Leigh Centurions although the bookies, pundits, and most supporters believed that there could only be one winner.

The Eagles were given an almost unprecedented thirty-four-point start on the handicap coupon as they looked to overcome a six-place difference in the league table and pull off a miracle result and get themselves a trip to London.

But Mark Aston loves to be an underdog, and Adrian Lam wouldn´t take the challenge lightly.

Bradford welcomed Leigh to the Tetleys Stadium at Odsal for the final Betfred Challenge Cup fifth round tie, with a visit to Hull Kingston Rovers in the sixth round the reward for the winners.

Leigh came out on top and won through to the fifth round of the Betfred Challenge Cup in the Monday night clash between two of the Championship's more fancied sides.

The only Sunday afternoon Championship fixture to survive the storms sweeping across the United Kingdom was the game at the LNER where two sides with two wins out of three, the York City Knights and the Leigh Centurions, clashed with an eye on taking second spot in the league.

The weather for those travelling from Leigh was atrocious as the tail end of Storm Eunice passed through and Storm Franklin breezed in, and it would be down to who would play the conditions the best as the pitch was deemed to be fit for the game to go ahead.

Round 3 of the Betfred Championship concluded with Leigh Centurions, who lost to Featherstone on TV last week, hosting a Bradford Bulls outfit looking to bounce back after losing to Sheffield.

A fixture between Featherstone Rovers and Leigh Centurions would be the game of the round on any given weekend of Betfred Championship rugby and with both clubs hopeful and optimistic of ending the season by being promoted to Super League for 2023 there was little wonder that Premier Sports selected it for their second edition of Monday night football.

Both sides secured a win in the competitions opening round last weekend, and knew that they needed a win to keep level with the three unbeaten sides at the top of the table; Widnes, Batley and Barrow.

It was two coaches with masses of Super League experience and pedigree as Brian McDermott came up against Adrian Lam in an early season crunch game.

Still without a win in Super League 2021 the Leigh Centurions travelled to the DW Stadium to take on a Wigan Warriors side who are also not having everything their own way after a great start to the year has recently headed downhill.

John Bateman was back for the home side, and would start off the bench for a Wigan side who could not improve their league position, but for whom a victory would give them some breathing space in fourth.

A first win for Leigh would give them a glimmer of hope of avoiding the drop, out of Super League, in a couple of months’ time but without several first teamers, and the bookies giving them a twenty-two point start on the coupon, it seemed unlikely.

After not being able to buy a win in the opening weeks of the 2021 Super League season Wakefield Trinity, under the coaching of Chris Chester, seem to have turned a corner and recorded good wins in their last two outings.

Leigh Centurions, on the other hand, remain pointless in the 2021 season after being promoted into the spot vacated when the Toronto Wolfpack were thrown out of the competition and came into today’s game knowing that this was one game in their fixture list that they would have had as a ‘must win’ coming into the season.

Assistant coach Kurt Heggarty has stepped into the role of head coach at the Centurions after they cut short the tenure of John Duffy earlier in the week in the hope of turning around their fortunes.

Two sides, who were disappointed in the result of their opening fixtures, were first up in the Totally Wicked Stadium Mose Masoe double header as the Warrington Wolves took on the new boys, Leigh Centurions, with a crucial two points up for grabs and both teams looking to stay in touch with the top of the table.

The Centurions had Ben Reynolds back in their side after he returned from Toulouse Olympique without playing a game for his new side.

A transfer fee was involved but the scrum half adds a special dimension to the Leigh line-up.

Warrington were big favourites for the win, Leigh getting a sixteen-point start on the coupon, but the Wolves wouldn’t be taking anything for granted.

It has been confirmed that the Leigh Centurions will replace the Toronto Wolfpack for the Superleague 2021 season after they were determined to have entered the most complete and appealing bid of the six sides who were hoping to play in the topflight next season.

Without playing a ball, or making a tackle, Leigh were chosen ahead of Bradford Bulls, Featherstone Rovers, London Broncos, Toulouse Olympique and York City Knights, much to the delight of their fans, players and administrators.

Coach John Duffy now has a small window during which to strengthen his side ahead of the start of the competition on the 11^th March 2021, a time when hopefully there will be some spectators allowed inside stadia.

It was knock-out football as the Betfred Championship Play-Offs arrived at Leigh Sports Village, where fifth placed Featherstone Rovers met the Leigh Centurions for the priviledge of a semi-final encounter against the York City Knight next weekend.

Both sides were without some key players as they went into a nerve-wracking sudden death battle.

The last time that they met was in West Yorkshire when Rovers secured a 24-20 win but when Rovers visited the LSV in February it was the home side who took the win with a 29-20 victory.

Leigh were big favourites with the bookies but this was knockout football, anything could happen.

The Bradford Bulls travelled to the Leigh Sports Village to take in a Centurions side seeking to capitalise on Toulouse's shock defeat at the hands of Swinton yesterday and close the gap on second spot to just two points.

The Bulls also had it all to play for and knew that a win would get them level on league points with their opponents, but with a chasm between their points differences it would require a massive victory to take their place on the ladder.

John Kear had Crossley and Garside back in his side with Farrell, Webster and Roche missing out.

John Duffy’s Leigh were looking for their third consecutive win and a seventh victory in their last eight as one of the form sides in the division.

The scene was set for a belter of a game.