{"id":562932,"date":"2026-05-02T20:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T20:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/562932\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T20:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T20:08:13","slug":"ben-mcnamaras-bradford-bulls-target-set-out-as-leigh-leopards-boss-explains-playmakers-loan-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/562932\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben McNamara&#8217;s Bradford Bulls target set out as Leigh Leopards boss explains playmaker&#8217;s loan move"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/OH_8186.jpg\" class=\"attachment- size- wp-post-image\" alt=\"Leigh Leopards halfback Ben McNamara on player of the match appearance\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Leigh Leopards have allowed Ben McNamara to head out on loan this week, as the playmaker joins Bradford Bulls.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriousaboutrl.com\/rugby-league-news-bradford-bulls-land-much-needed-loanee-as-leigh-leopards-man-joins-club-114753\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bulls have secured his services<\/a> for this week\u2019s trip to Wigan Warriors, as the move works for both parties with Bradford in desperate need for a playmaker and McNamara needing added game time.<\/p>\n<p>The son of Bulls icon, Steve, has featured for Leigh eight times this season, but has only played in cameo roles. Now that Edwin Ipape is back in the side, and Liam Horne is featuring off the bench, McNamara\u2019s services, in the short term, aren\u2019t required so a loan move is a suitable move for all involved.<\/p>\n<p>Leigh boss Adrian Lam spoke to the press this week to preview the club\u2019s trip to Catalans Dragons, and it was there that he was asked by\u00a0Serious About Rugby League\u00a0how that switch came about, and what the gaffer wants to see from him in his performance on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Lam said: \u201cI respect Ben and he\u2019s done a\u00a0great job for us in his time that he\u2019s been here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I feel that we do have\u00a0three reasonably good nines there. Ben\u2019s been playing a little bit of half for us, but I need\u00a0him to go out and play big minutes because he hasn\u2019t been playing much time here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was the communication and I want him to play well [at] Bradford and play big\u00a0minutes. That\u2019s the focus for him, and I think that\u2019ll get him exactly where he\u00a0needs to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McNamara has been rotating between the halves and the hooker position for Leigh this season, so there is questions over where Bulls will utilise him this week.<\/p>\n<p>With Andy Ackers back for Kurt Haggerty\u2019s side, that suggests he could be playing in the halves alongside Chris Atkin, but Lam isn\u2019t 100% what Haggerty and his side want to do with him just yet.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of where he plays though, the Leopards boss is hoping to see a solid showing from McNamara if he wants to play extended minutes in the Leigh first team.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768085712_213_srl-logo.png\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards have allowed Ben McNamara to head out on loan this week, as the playmaker joins Bradford&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-562932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}