LEIGH LEOPARDS coach Adrian Lam was delighted by his team’s performance in recovering from an 0-8 half-time deficit to defeat their near neighbours Wigan 18-8 in the Battle of the Borough.
“We were really tough and resilient,” said Lam.
“We were poor at times last week (against Leeds), so we needed to respond to that and the boys did. There were a lot of moving pieces this week in the sense of players coming in and going out and moving positions.
“So it was always going to be a real challenge, but I’m just proud, especially given that we haven’t played at home for six weeks roughly.
“We should have led at half-time, but we blew three clear chances, and another half a chance. So I felt that we put ourselves in a position to score them, but we didn’t. And you’ve got to score them in the big games.
“I just gave them that belief at half-time that the opportunities will come, but we’ve just got to nail the skill. And the tries we scored in the second half were real classy.”
“We’ve been scoring some amazing tries this season, but we’ve blown a lot just from not nailing the skill. And the way that we went down that right side with Umyla (Hanley), finding the passing side to Edwin Ipape was as good a try as we’ve had this year. So they’re the ones that we need to keep nailing because they’re not set plays for us. They’re ad-lib rugby.”
Lam picked out several players for individual praise.
“Bailey Hodgson is a tough kid and he’s been playing some great rugby this year. He’s as good as anyone, really, at certain points of his game, and he showed that again tonight.
“I’m so happy for him, and I’m happy for Ethan O’Neill coming back on that right second row, because we pushed Owen Trout to the middle for Mulhern. Trout was awesome as well.”
And there was special praise for the performance of Edwin Ipape.
“Unbelievable! Unbelievable! And he was a 50-50 chance of not playing tonight,” revealed Lam.
“You know, we were going to rule him out in the warm-up, but he’s close to missing out just because he’s got a bit of a knee injury. When he’s fit, he’s as good as any player in this country. He’s definitely the best nine. He’s just at the next level when he gets his hands on the ball.
“I’ve also been playing him at 13 a little bit and he comes alive there. You can see the game change a little bit. I’m excited about where we can take that to. Watch this space.”