Leigh Leopards coach addresses Aaron Pene form as brutally honest admission made

Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam admits there is ‘a lot of work to be done’ with out-of-form prop Aaron Pene, who looks set to depart come the end of the season.

Pene – who featured 32 times in the NRL between Melbourne Storm and New Zealand Warriors – arrived at Leigh midway through the 2024 campaign.

The front-rower put pen to paper on a two-and-a-half year deal, but has never hit his straps in Super League through a combination of injuries, fitness and at times, non-selection.

Friday night brought another subpar individual display as Lam’s side were beaten 22-8 at Hull KR, with Pene conceding a penalty in the first two minutes of the second half which led to the Robins try which put the game beyond Leigh.

The 30-year-old was perhaps fortunate not to see yellow from referee Chris Kendall for that incident having caught Rovers winger Joe Burgess high and ended his evening prematurely.

‘He hasn’t played much time over the last 12 months, so there’s a lot of work to be done’

Earlier this season, LoveRugbyLeague exclusively revealed that Leigh had made Pene available for immediate transfer, though no suitors were found that a deal could be struck with.

Addressing Pene’s form post-match at Craven Park, head coach Lam said: “He hasn’t played much time over the last 12 months, so there’s a lot of work to be done there and that’s ongoing.

“Whilst he’s in the 17, I’ve got to back the player.

“Aaron gave away the penalty for the high shot in the first set of the second half, which is just unacceptable.”

Pene has now played 30 games for the Leopards across all competitions, including five this season, with three tries scored.

Friday night’s defeat in East Hull was only a second in eight games for Leigh, but they are likely to end the weekend four competition points behind Super League‘s play-off spots.

Next weekend, they make the trip across the Channel to Toulouse Olympique.

Lam continued: “It’s little things like that (penalty), there’s a bit of game smarts (lacking), not only with Aaron, they’re everywhere.

“(Robbie) Mulhern gave a high shot away under the posts, there were two or three… Jacob Alick-Wiencke gave a couple of penalties away.

“A lack of game sense at times tonight hurt us.”