Leigh coach shares clear statement of intent ahead of crunch Wakefield clash
Leigh Leopards head coach Adrian Lam
Leigh boss Adrian Lam doesn’t want the Leopards to chase the 28-point margin needed to leapfrog Wakefield Trinity into fourth place, with a clear focus instead on performance and winning Friday night’s Round 27 clash.
Ahead of their final game of the regular season, which comes against Wakefield on Friday night, Leigh sit fifth on the Super League ladder: two competition points worse off than fourth-placed Trinity.
The side that finishes fourth on the ladder will earn a home tie the following week in the play-off eliminators, and for that to be the Leopards, they’d need to win the pair’s Round 27 clash by a margin of 28 points or more.
But while that would be the ideal, head coach Lam wants his side instead to focus on getting the job done in terms of a win – as regardless of the margin it comes by, that would at least guarantee fifth place.
‘It’s about keeping momentum going by winning, and letting the scoreline take care of itself’
Leigh were beaten 18-14 away at Wakefield back in March. If they win on Friday night and it is by a margin of less than 28 points, they know they will be heading back to Belle Vue on September 18 for a play-off eliminator tie.
Speaking in Tuesday afternoon’s pre-match press conference, Lam admitted: “It’s a tough one, to be honest with you.
“As a coach, you’ve got to look at all of the scenarios including the win, the win by 28 points or the worst case scenario, which is a loss.
“You’ve got to broadly look at that and see what fits best – the potential outcomes, the scheduling, everything else that comes with it… players returning or not returning.
“More importantly, what we can focus on is a home game here and an 80-minute performance with a win at the end of it.”
After a challenging start to the campaign, the Leopards have won 15 of their last 19 games to cement a play-off spot for the fourth season on the spin following their return to Super League in 2023.
Each of the last two seasons have seen them beaten away at Wigan Warriors in the semi-finals: with last year’s defeat at The Brick Community Stadium following a home win over Wakefield at the eliminator stage.
Lam continued: “The 28 points could mathematically work (for us to take fourth), but I think it would be disrespectful to think that we can play a team that’s been one of the form teams and go and get that (margin of victory).
“For me, it’s tackle-by-tackle and set-by-set. We need an 80-minute performance and we need to play well, play better than we did last week (against St Helens) and get the win.
“That (28-point margin) is not going to be the focus for me.
“It’s about keeping momentum going by winning, and letting the scoreline take care of itself.
“The focus is on playing better than what we’ve played this year and trying to build momentum going Ito the finals (play-offs).”
