{"id":685946,"date":"2026-07-11T11:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T11:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/685946\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T11:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T11:45:17","slug":"leigh-leopards-boss-clarifies-new-signings-contract-length-as-edwin-ipape-and-lachlan-lam-admissions-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/685946\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards boss clarifies new signing’s contract length as Edwin Ipape and Lachlan Lam admissions made"},"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

Adrian Lam has weighed in on new signing Lazarus Vaalepu, after the forward joined Leigh Leopards at the end of last month.<\/p>\n

Vaalepu departed NRL side Melbourne Storm in June to take up a new opportunity at the Leopards. He becomes the latest man to make the move mid-season to the Leopards, joining the likes of Aaron Pene and Joe Ofahengaue, who have doen the same in recent seasons.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old has 12 NRL and two international appearances to his name, and is keen to rip in at the Leigh Sports Village. He could make his debut as early as this week when Leigh host Castleford Tigers on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Lam spoke on his new man in this week\u2019s press conference, and is over the moon with the way he has settled into the club over the past week or so.<\/p>\n

The boss said: \u201cHe\u2019s a big body, a point of difference for us really, and he\u2019s slipped straight into training over the last seven days. We\u2019re pretty excited to get working with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be business as usual, just trying to get him up to speed on who we are as a club and everything else, but he certainly looks like he\u2019s going to fit in really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially, Leigh revealed that Vaalepu had signed \u201cfor the 2026 season,\u201d and whilst that is true, Lam has actually confirmed that the deal he has inked is actually longer than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a two and a half [year contract],\u201d said the boss. \u201cIt\u2019s a one and a half year deal with a second year. So the rest of this year, 26, all of 27 and 28 in the option of both the club and the player. So two and a half years, essentially.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magic Weekend fallout, Leeds Rhinos\u2019 latest signing, Super League\u2019s game of the season \u2013 Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Leigh Leopards boss highlights key men\u2019s upturn in form after Magic Weekend win<\/p>\n

The Leopards go into their game against Castleford on the back of a 24-6 victory over Warrington Wolves at Magic Weekend. That win was their eighth in the last 10 matches, so it\u2019s plain to see that Leigh are on the up as we approach the back-end of the season.<\/p>\n

In those eight wins, certain players have been in a great vein of form, and were rightfully singled out by the boss for praise.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cMatty Davis hasn\u2019t had much game time this year, and he was pretty good. He brought us a lot of energy last week. Liam Horne is starting to play his best rugby since being a part of us.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavey Armstrong, man of the match last week and getting back to his groove. Look at Adam Cook whose ceiling has grown and he\u2019s maturing nicely within our system. There\u2019s a lot of positives to look at and to be grateful for here at the moment.<\/p>\n

On Armstrong in particular, he added: \u201cI\u2019m very pleased for Davey, coming back from a serious injury this year, his confidence was low.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve stuck by him, and I think every week he\u2019s gotten better. He was class for us on the weekend, scored a try, which he can show what he can do, but also defending tries too. Saving tries for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been working really hard. His confidence is back. I\u2019m really looking forward, especially now that it\u2019s drying up, to see him in open space a bit more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great part of the game, and we\u2019ve got flyers like him and Josh and Umyla and Innes as well, all ready to do a little bit more of that, we hope.<\/p>\n

Lam continued the praise, saying:\u00a0 \u201cI think I saw the best rugby from Lockie [Lachlan] Lam as well. He\u2019s been carrying an injury and playing under duress with a wrist and thumb issue and a small hamstring strain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Edwin Ipape had his best game of the month on the weekend too.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it dries up, I\u2019m looking for them to light up Super League.\u201d<\/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":"Adrian Lam has weighed in on new signing Lazarus Vaalepu, after the forward joined Leigh Leopards at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-685946","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\/685946","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=685946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}