Kingstone Press Championship Preview: Halifax v Leigh Centurions

Richard Marshall was pleased to come away from Whitehaven with a win in his first game as coach to Halifax.

“You’ve got to applaud Whitehaven, they made it a bit of a battle for us as we knew they would do,” he said.

“Leigh had a good win against Bradford. They’re obviously a physical team so we’ll have to make sure we’re up for that and more than match them physically.

“I think it will be a good test. We’re coming up against a full-time team but it’s our first game at home. Hopefully there will be a bumper crowd and the Fax fans will get behind us. It’s going to be a great advert for the Championship.”

Marshall has added Jacob Fairbank to his squad but is unsure whether he’ll play on Sunday.

Leigh coach Paul Rowley said of the victory over Bradford last week: “It was a good advertisement for the Championship and reassurance that the new structure is a wonderful step forward for the game as a whole.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s clash with Halifax he said: “I think it will be quite possibly be one of our hardest games. They are a fantastic side and they’ve strengthened again. We will have to play better this week than we did last week. I don’t think our previous performance will be good enough against Halifax.”

Adam Higson sustain a broken hand against Bradford but apart from that Rowley will be picking from a full squad.