Leigh Leopards may have picked up their second win of the Super League campaign, but it has come at a cost with two players set for spells on the sidelines.
Leigh took home the two points after a golden point thriller over Toulouse Olympique, as Gareth O’Brien’s drop-goal was all that could separate the two sides after 85 minutes of play.
Josh Charnley scored twice in the win as Liam Horne and Innes Senior also crossed for tries, however a shaky second half saw the Leopards fail to score a point, as Toulouse clawed their way back from 20-0 down on 35 minutes to 20-20 at full time.
As he has on so many occasions, most notably in the Million Pound Game for Salford against Hull KR, it was O’Brien that was the man that came up with the goods, as he made Adrian Lam a very delighted boss.
However, it was not all good news for Leigh, who have potentially picked up two injuries from the game, as their already depleted squad suffers another blow.
Speaking to Sky Sports post match, the PNG man said: ” [After] tonight, I think Jack Hughes might be out now for one or two weeks maybe and also Tesi Niu, I think there’s a chance of him probably not playing next week now as well.”
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Leigh Leopards boss provides mixed injury update
On a more positive note, whilst Lam didn’t specify who would be making their returns, the club should be able to welcome some bodies back over the next fortnight, in what would be a huge boost for the club.
“There is probably four or five of them coming back in the next two weeks, maybe one or two next week and then the rest after that,” the Leigh boss confirmed.
Two of those players are expected to be Owen Trout and Joe Ofahenguae, both of whom were in contention to play against Toulouse, but were not risked in case of rushing them back too early and aggravating their respective issues.
Full-back David Armstrong is set to keep to his pre-season return date of round eight, so could feature at some point in April, whilst Umyla Hanley is another that is yet to feature in Super League 2026.
Speaking on the victory overall, Lam said: “We just made it difficult for ourselves.
“A pretty clear picture of how the game unfolded – a really great start, I thought the soft try just before halftime gave them some hope and a little bit of momentum and the whole second half was just all theirs really.
“I’m just grateful we got through in the end there… The way those players have managed to cling on to get that victory at the end, we know your team has got a great spirit in it and they’ve showed it again tonight at the end.
“That’s what I’m really proud of. We could have easily, with that momentum they had during that second part of the second half, I think you’d probably tip them to get that golden point there.
“They played really well, they’re a team that just never give up but I’m grateful that during probably the most difficult time of that 80 minutes there we found a way to hang in there and get that point at the end and so much needed win.”
