Leigh Leopards coach drops major recruitment hint following Challenge Cup win

Leigh Leopards head coach Adrian Lam has hinted that they may be able to add some new faces to the squad prior to the Challenge Cup semi-finals after Friday night’s last-eight win at Wakefield Trinity.

The Leopards – who lifted the Challenge Cup in 2023 – reached this year’s last four in the competition courtesy of a 20-12 win against Trinity at Belle Vue.

Having led 6-0 at the break thanks to Lachlan Lam’s try, Leigh found themselves 12-6 down early on in the second half, but recovered to take the win and a semi-final spot thanks to tries from Tesi Niu and Bailey Hodgson.

Lam senior’s side are now just 80 minutes from a return to Wembley, with their semi-final to come over the weekend of May 10/11.

Leigh Leopards coach drops major recruitment hint following Challenge Cup win

Though that semi-final tie is just a few weeks away, Lam hinted post-match following Friday night’s win at Wakefield that his squad may have been bolstered by then.

Leigh’s desire to strengthen has been no secret, with the Papua New Guinean boss himself detailing that he’d like to add a half-back alongside some more size in the forward pack.

With plenty of their salary cap left to spend, and numerous overseas quota spots available, the Leigh boss said: “I believe in the recruitment and retention principles and process that we have at the club.

“I think we’ve got the right players there, and we’ve got the room to spend and bring in others.

“We’re pretty excited about that, and whenever that happens, that happens, but it’s probably the sooner the better now with the (Challenge Cup) semi-finals coming up.

“It’d be handy to bring one or two players into this group here to elevate them, so we’ll see what happens.”

The Leopards will discover their semi-final opponents on Sunday when the last-four draw is carried out.

Catalans Dragons are the only other team to have booked their spot in the semi-finals at the time of writing after beating Salford Red Devils 20-12 in Perpignan on Friday night.

Saturday afternoon sees Hull FC square off against bitter cross-city rivals Hull KR at the MKM Stadium, while the quarter-final action is rounded off at the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Sunday when Warrington Wolves host St Helens.