Featherstone Rovers are hoping to test the capacity of their Millennium Stadium ground this (Monday) evening, when they host Leigh Centurions in what promises to be a blockbuster encounter that will be shown live on Premier Sports.
Rovers featured in the first game shown on Premier Sports last week, when they defeated York City Knights 30-12 at the LNER Community Stadium.
But they are expecting a tougher challenge against promotion rivals Leigh and the big attraction for Rovers fans is the likely debut of Joey Leilua, who is perhaps the biggest signing of an NRL star to have been made by a Championship club.
Leilua comes to Featherstone after having made 225 NRL appearances and scored 95 tries for Sydney Roosters (2010-2012), Newcastle Knights (2013-2015), Canberra Raiders (2015-2019) and Wests Tigers (2020-2021).
He has also played 15 games for Samoa, scoring three tries, and if he can touch down for two tries tonight, he will achieve 100 career tries.
And Leilua is looking forward to getting out onto the field.
“I had other clubs in Super League wanting to sign me and I came very close to signing a deal, but then they came back and said they didn’t want me because I was a bad person,” he explained.
“I speak my mind, but it was disappointing to see them say that about me over here.
“Once that happened, I didn’t get a call from anybody until Featherstone came along. They wanted me and Brian McDermott was the one who persuaded me to come over here.”
Leilua admits that he didn’t enjoy his time at his last club, Wests Tigers, under former Wigan coach Michael Maguire.
“I left Canberra to go Wests Tigers because I thought they were going to be a good fit for me, but obviously they weren’t,” he said.
“My brother was there and he persuaded me to go there, saying it was a good environment. And now he’s leaving.
“Unfortunately I didn’t get on with Michael Maguire. We had our differences and the funny part is that they are doing now what I advised them to do.
“But Featherstone is a nice town with nice people. A lot of fans have come up to me and they already know me. They love their footy here, so that’s great.
“I’m raring to go and I’m looking forward to playing against Leigh.”
Featherstone squad: 1 Brandon Pickersgill, 2 Luke Briscoe, 3 Joey Leilua, 4 Craig Hall, 5 Gareth Gale, 6 Tom Holmes, 7 Dane Chisholm, 9 Connor Jones, 10 James Lockwood, 11 Brett Ferres, 13 Jack Bussey, 14 Matty Wildie, 15 John Davies, 16 Junior Moors, 17 Ben Hellewell, 18 Josh Hardcastle, 19 Callum Field, 20 Morgan Smith, 21 Luke Cooper, 22 Kyle Trout, 26 Adam Cuthbertson
Leigh squad: 1 Caleb Aekins, 3 Keanan Brand, 4 Nene Macdonald, 5 Tom Nisbet, 6 Ben Reynolds, 7 Joe Mellor, 8 Adam Sidlow, 9 Aaron Smith, 10 Mark Ioane, 11 Joe Wardle, 12 Sam Stone, 13 Tom Amone, 14 Chris Green, 15 Ata Hingano, 16 Ed Chamberlain, 17 Jacob Jones, 18 John Asiata, 19 Luis Roberts, 20 Kieran Dixon, 22 Jamie McDonnell, 23 Dan Norman
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