THE newest Super League side will be the Leigh Leopards following the brilliant ease in which Adrian Lam’s side swept aside all Championship opponents in 2022.
Lam’s men lost just once all season after going down to the Featherstone Rovers very early on before putting the West Yorkshire club to the sword in the three remaining games between the two sides last season.
As such, the Leopards – newly rebranded from the Centurions following owner Derek Beaumont’s decision to change tack – will now compete in Super League in 2023 with the aim of thriving not just surviving in the top tier.
To do just that, Lam, head of rugby Chris Chester and Beaumont have changed the complete face of the side that earned promotion last season.
In fact, ten new signings have made their way through the doors at the Leigh Sports whilst the club has also been faced with the departure of Nene MacDonald, Sam Stone and Caleb Aekins as Blake Ferguson has reportedly exited Leigh and the UK on compassionate grounds.
That being said, the likes of Zak Hardaker, Ricky Leutele and Jack Hughes have all penned deals with the Leopards in a bid to help realise Beaumont’s ambition of being a top six side.
But, just how could Leigh line up in 2023? (Numbers below do NOT represent squad numbers whilst new signings are highlighted in bold).
1 Gareth O’Brien
2 Josh Charnley
3 Zak Hardaker
4 Ricky Leutele
5 Tom Briscoe/New signing
6 Lachlan Lam
7 Joe Mellor
8 Rob Mulhern
9 Aaron Smith
10 Tom Amone
11 Oliver Holmes
12 Joe Wardle
13 John Asiata
Substitutes
14 Edwin Ipape
15 Matt Davis
16 Ben Nakubuwai
17 Kai O’Donnell
