After the closest of finishes to the Saturday of Magic Weekend, Sunday began with a fixture which promised to be more one sides as a Leigh Leopards side on fine form, and having beaten the league leaders last time out, took on the bottom side in Super League, the winless Wakefield Trinity.

Wakefield had been given an eighteen-point start on the handicap coupon and only the most one-eyed of Wakefield supporters would suggest any other outcome than a big Leopards win which would see Leigh up to fourth place in the table, and if the win was by more than twenty-nine points then they would be into third, above near neighbours Wigan.

The expectation was of one-way traffic, Wakefield needed a miracle.

Seventh placed Leeds Rhinos had a tenth-round date over the Pennines with ninth placed Leigh Leopards with the home side knowing that a win by thirteen points or more would see them take the Rhinos ladder place while a win for the visitors would see them into the top five and depending on points difference and other results, as high as third.

Both sides won last time out and came into tonight’s game evenly matched on paper, so much so that the bookies could hardly separate them and giving the home side just a two-point start on the handicap coupon.

Both coaches named an unchanged starting thirteen from last weekend, the Rhinos bringing Bentley onto the bench in place of Johnson while the Leopards fielded an identical seventeen.

The two sides tipped pre-season by many as the two relegation prospects have had contrasting starts to the season and while both Wakefield Trinity and the Leigh Leopards will have identified this afternoon´s encounter as a key one for their season the Bookies strongly favoured that it would be the Leopards who would inflict further misery on the home side.

Wakefield are winless after the first eight rounds of Super League, and have failed to score a single point in half of their games so far in 2023.

The Leopards have beaten both Hull sides and claimed the famous scalp of Champions St Helens in their opening games and will count themselves as unlucky to have lost narrowly in three other outings, especially last week´s two-point loss to Salford.

Just eleven miles separate Rivals Leigh Leopards and the Salford Red Devils as round eight of the competition threw them together for the second time in 2023 as seventh and ninth battled for a place in the top half of the table.

A victory for either side would lift them above the Huddersfield Giants into sixth spot, but fifth looked just out of reach as Salford would need a thirty-seven-point win and Leigh would need to win by ninety-three or more.

Salford had been made the slight favourites with the bookies, Leigh being given a two-point start on the handicap coupon, but there was very little to choose between the two sides.

The Leopards hoped that home advantage, and all the usual Leopards razzamatazz, would be enough to secure a fourth win for the home side in their first eight outings and get revenge for their loss on the opening weekend of the season.

Round Seven of Super League 2023 got underway with the Battle of the Borough as Leigh Leopards hosted the Wigan Warriors with eighth toaking on third with local bragging rights up for grabs between the two sides located just eight miles apart.

Adrian Lam was facing his past employers as he took on Matt Peet´s side in a game which few were brave enough to call, but the which the bookies were leaning towards an away win having given the Leopards an eight-point start on the handicap coupon.

In front of a record Leigh Sports Village home crowd, a fifty-point win would lift the Leopards above Wigan into third spot, but a win of any kind would see them spend the night in fourth.

A win for the visitors would see them up to second in the table, at least until the Dragons play on Saturday evening.

It was a bottom half of the table four pointer as Hull FC took on the Leigh Leopards as ninth travelled to tenth as both sides looked for their third win of the season and a jump up the league table.

The Leopards won last time out but the Airlie Birds have lost their last three.

Both sides were keen for the win to get the lift of a win and move towards the top half of the table.

The bookies made the home side the favourites and had given Leigh a four-point start in the handicap coupon, but it was too nervous sides, and anything could happen.

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.