Leigh Centurions ambition at the start of 2020 season was to be back in Super League for the beginning of the 2021 campaign. That’s exactly what has come to pass, but it hasn’t happened in the way that Leigh fans or anyone connected to rugby league would have hoped.
Just four games in to the 2020 Championship campaign the sport - much like everything else we value - was thrown into chaos by the Covid-19 outbreak. Unlike the top flight - which made a sanitised, TV-led return in August - the Championship and League One were unable to restart. With no significant TV funds to prop them up the clubs could not afford to play without fans coming through the gates. Players and club staff were put on furlough as we all learned a new word and the season outside Super League was effectively cancelled.
At the time that might have seemed a harsher blow for Leigh than for some others. They had started their bid for promotion with thumping wins over Dewsbury, Sheffield, York and Halifax. They were conceding an average of only 10 points per game while racking up 40.5 points per outing at the other end. They looked a genuine contender for promotion before it all came shuddering to a halt. It seemed their wait to get back among the elite would go on.
Events took a turn again when Toronto Wolfpack sensationally withdrew from Super League due to some extremely poor accounting which was ruthlessly exposed by the pandemic. By season’s end the Jedi Council of Super League owners had decided that they would not run with 11 clubs in 2021 as they had in 2020. Nor would Toronto be readmitted, failing to convince the owners and the expansion-sceptic Super League chief Robert Elstone that they could be relied upon financially long term. With no way of awarding a Super League place based on sporting merit franchising fans were thrown into raptures as Leigh joined Toulouse, London, Featherstone, Halifax and Bradford in a bidding process for the golden ticket. The Centurions got the nod and will have a first crack at Super League since 2017.
Much like it had been on that occasion the immediate aim will be to survive. As things stand relegation is back on the agenda after its one-year Covid-inspired hiatus. It’s a big step from the Championship up to Super League. The continued yo-yoing of those who achieve promotion is one of the reasons there is a growing lobby for its permanent removal. Mere survival may not seem like the last word in ambition but it would be a notable achievement. Not least because those very same protectionist club owners have conspired to ensure that the slice of the Sky cake awarded to the newbie is not quite as big as their own. Leigh will receive around £1million from the broadcast revenue pot. That’s £1million more than Toronto were receiving, but is only just over half the figure that the other 11 clubs will take. That puts the Centurions at a competitive disadvantage from the get-go.
Some of head coach John Duffy’s recruitment may reflect that. Four of his new arrivals have taken the already well trodden path between Toronto and Leigh, while four more move to the Leigh Sports Village from Super League’s bottom club Hull KR.
Matty Russell is proven at Super League level. He played in a Grand Final for Warrington as recently as 2016 and was also in the Wolves line-up when they were defeated by Hull FC in the Challenge Cup final that season. He is adept at either full back or wing and has scored 72 tries in 148 club appearances since making his debut for Wigan in 2011. Remarkably he is still only 27, but had been out of Super League since joining Toronto in 2018 before the Canadian side’s brief pre-Covid appearance last year. Like many of his team-mates and the Leigh club generally, the question for Russell will be whether he can make the step back up.
Two others from Toronto with substantial top flight experience are Joe Mellor and Adam Sidlow. Mellor has perhaps been burdened with some very high expectations since emerging at youth level for Wigan in 2009. He never quite made the grade at Wigan and after loan spells with London Broncos’ previous incarnation Harlequins RL and Widnes Vikings he joined the Chemics permanently and made over 150 appearances for them before joining the Wolfpack project in 2019. At 30 he is another who will be keen to prove that he can still perform at this level. Sidlow is another ex-Widnes man, a rugged experienced prop with almost 200 games for Salford and Bradford under his belt.
The final arrival from the Wolfpack was embarking on his first Super League campaign last year when Covid came along and spoiled the party. Blake Wallace only reached Queensland and New South Wales Cup level in his native Australia and at 28 will look to prove he can add something to Duffy’s ball-playing options.
Challenging both Wallace and Mellor for playing time in the halves will be former Rovers pair Jamie Ellis and Ryan Brierley. Both have had previous spells at Leigh, racking up almost 160 appearances for the club between them. Ellis was a prolific try-scorer in his 2011 stint, crossing 34 times in just 31 appearances. Like Russell, both Ellis and Brierley are Scotland internationals. There will almost certainly be exciting moments from them all but they need to add consistency to give Leigh an opportunity to survive.
Following Ellis and Brierley from what always used to be Craven Park are props Matty Gee and Nathaniel Peteru. Worryingly, Gee was part of the London squad relegated from the top flight in 2019 and will inevitably be viewed by many as the classic yo-yoer, falling out of the league with one club before getting a crack with their replacement. He must ensure it is different this time. Nathaniel Peteru probably didn’t think he’d have to worry about Super League survival when he joined Leeds Rhinos from Gold Coast Titans in 2018. Yet after underwhelming spells at Headingley and Hull KR the 29 year-old will be looking to rebuild his reputation in England.
When Russell was losing that 2016 Grand Final two of his new Centurions colleagues were dancing around the Old Trafford pitch with winners medals in their hands. Lewis Tierney joins after a spell with Catalans Dragons during which he was a Challenge Cup winner in 2018, while Ben Flower has won three Grand Finals with Wigan. It is the one he lost for which we remember him most and for which he is notorious. The 17-cap Welsh international became the first man to be sent off in a Super League Grand Final in 2014 when his marbles went AWOL inside two minutes. Centurions fans can expect to see a much milder, mature character than that guy. But at 33 and with a fairly weighty medical report in recent years he remains a bit of a gamble.
Considering what we’ve seen at play financially Leigh have not had to sacrifice too much to make room for the new additions. Martin Ridyard was a firm favourite at LSV with over 250 appearances for the club in two spells spanning 11 years. Yet with Mellor, Wallace, Brierley and Ellis all on board now opportunities in the halves may have been harder to come by for the veteran 34 year-old. The same issues see Jarrod Sammut head back to London Broncos after only one appearance as a Centurion.
Ben Reynolds is much younger at 27 but Duffy is satisfied that he has enough to allow the former Castleford and Wakefield man - another who has had two spells at Leigh - to join Toulouse in their bid to get to Super League for 2022. Brierley’s ability to play fullback along with Russell’s arrival means that Irish international Greg McNally has been freed to move back to Whitehaven where he began his career in 2008.
Danny Addy is perhaps the most significant loss of all. The former Bradford man gets another tilt at Super League but with Richard Marshall’s Salford Red Devils. At 30, he has had severe injuries of late but if he is physically fit can still do a job in the top flight. Aiming to fill the gap he leaves behind will be another Scottish international - James Bell - who comes north from Toulouse.
Looking at those already available to Duffy prior to recruitment there is cause for concern in the backs. Junior S’au has plenty of Super League experience but the remainder of Leigh’s back line could be much more reliant on the new recruits. They will need to settle in quickly. The fact that several of them know the club from previous spells should help. Up front there is more certainty with Sidlow, Alex Gerrard, Matt Wildie and Liam Hood all boasting top flight experience along with former Huddersfield Giant Nathan Mason and ex- Castleford and Leeds man Jordan Thompson.
The early fixture list hasn’t been particularly kind to Leigh in their return. Starting with what will always be a grudge match with Wigan, Duffy’s side also face Warrington and Saints in the first five rounds. Castleford and Salford are also on the schedule during that opening run and will not prove easy prey. If Leigh should find themselves still looking for a first win after that Round 5 clash with Saints on the May Day Bank holiday weekend Duffy and his troops must hold their nerve. It is a 25-round competition this year if all goes to plan. There will be time to recover. Optimists will point out in any case that Leigh beat all of Saints, Warrington and Salford at different stages of their last Super League campaign. It could happen again.
The run-in is likely to be of more significance to Leigh in all probability. That’s when the whips really begin to crack and the pressure to avoid the bottom spot intensifies. There is another clash with Saints awaiting Leigh in their final five but they will see fixtures with Wakefield, Huddersfield, Hull KR and Catalans during that period as games they can target. Some of them could be must-win for all involved by that stage.
Climbing clumsily astride my fence I can’t say with any certainty that Leigh will buck recent trends and hang around for a second season in Super League. They have a fighting chance. It would be nice if they could, and to do it in front of some decent crowds when restrictions allow later in the summer. Only if they survive and attract a good following will they be able to silence some of the hand-wringers who tut-tutted at their top flight return at the expense of clubs from more fashionable, non-heartland locations. It would also help support the case for promotion and relegation - one of the pillars of UK sporting culture - at a time when the game is being Australianised to the point where pretty soon it will star Joe Mangel and Flat Head.
So I’m with Leigh, except when they play Saints. I’m just not all that confident.
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