{"id":683566,"date":"2026-07-10T03:51:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T03:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/683566\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T03:51:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T03:51:17","slug":"leigh-leopards-man-named-best-in-super-league-as-pundit-demands-england-call-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/683566\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards man named best in Super League as pundit demands England call-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Umyla Hanley was one of several Leigh players to stand out at Super League Magic Weekend, as the Leopards easily beat Warrington Wolves. As such, the 24-year-old has now been labelled the best in the centre in the competition.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the opinion of Jon Wilkin and Sam Tomkins, with the Sky Sports pundits full of praise for Hanley after the Leopards\u2019 win over Wire<\/a>, in which Hanley scored a brilliant try as Leigh continue to knock on the door of the top six.<\/p>\n

The centre also registered an assist and clocked up over 120 metres, and that performance, as well as his recent form, was enough for Jon Wilkin to declare Hanley as the \u201cbest centre in our competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pundit said: \u201cI think he\u2019s international quality. After Herbie Farnworth, he\u2019s probably my first name on the England list.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s playing better than Jake Wardle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Real deal Rhinos, toothless Tigers stunned by York + ceasefire at Odsal \u2013\u00a0Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Leigh Leopards centre better than Wardle or Handley<\/p>\n

For a long time, Wigan\u2019s Wardle has been the unanimous best centre in Super League but no longer, with Sam Tomkins agreeing with his fellow pundit that Hanley has now usurped the Wigan man.<\/p>\n

The ex-Man of Steel said: \u201cIn current form, I\u2019d agree with that and it\u2019s not always his try scoring that is most impressive. It\u2019s his work in backfield, it\u2019s real late footwork. He might not make 200 metres a game but his yardage carries and late footwork just to get a quick play.<\/p>\n

\u201cOff the back of that Ipape goes, Ofahengaue goes and it\u2019s really vital that he\u2019s doing the tough stuff as well which we probably don\u2019t know him for and we don\u2019t talk about it because he\u2019s so good at the other end of the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Host Brian Carney put forward Ash Handley as an alternative given the devastating combination he has formed with Maika Sivo but Wilkin was steadfast in his belief that Hamley is the best of the competition\u2019s centres.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cAsh Handley is having a great year but I honestly think Umyla Hanley\u2019s development, he\u2019s always been a good ball carrier, his instinctive centre play has become class and you know what defensively he\u2019s so solid as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where Jake Wardle or Ash Handley would maybe actually have the wood over him because they\u2019re defensively so solid structurally with their understanding of when to be aggressive and when to be passive, but I\u2019m seeing that from Hanley now.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the most devastating centre in the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key problem for Hanley is that he has only played six of the 17 games in Super League this year due to injury, however, with the Man of Steel voting coming up after next round\u2019s action, judge Sam Tomkins admitted that the Leigh man will be discussed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he\u2019s the best centre then he\u2019s got to be mentioned. He will be mentioned,\u201d Tomkins asserted.<\/p>\n

\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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Umyla Hanley was one of several Leigh players to stand out at Super League Magic Weekend, as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-683566","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\/683566","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=683566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}