It was a statement that seems somewhat prophetic now but at the time was certainly easy to criticise. “We’re not going into Super League to make up the numbers,” was how Leigh’s owner, Derek Beaumont, presented the club’s ambitions after securing promotion last October.
After all, this was on the day when Beaumont announced an ambitious rebrand of a club that had been know as the Centurions since 1995. The Leigh Leopards arrived clad in a new leopard-themed kit, which attracted plenty of derision. Throw in that Leigh had previously been promoted to Super League on three occasions and each time were relegated the following season and it was difficult not to imagine history repeating itself. But how wrong were all the sceptics.
No Super League club has finished higher than sixth in their first season back in the top flight, but Leigh sit second before Sunday’s trip to Salford, they are in the Challenge Cup semi-finals and have a genuine chance of a first major trophy since 1982.
The rebrand has been a success and a Greater Manchester town that is in effect a suburb of Wigan – so small it does not have a railway station – is threatening to shake up Super League’s status quo in a way no club has before. This is much more than just a mere underdog story and at the heart of it is Beaumont, the local businessman who has sunk millions into making Leigh a force.
“Proud doesn’t do how I feel justice,” he says. “I think I need to invent a new word to describe what these players and staff mean to me and how they make me feel. The sacrifices they make for this club and our town give me a sense of pride I’ve never experienced before.”
Leigh have been a yo-yo club; often too good for the Championship, but never quite ready to tackle Super League. But at the start of last year, Beaumont sought to bring about change.
He appointed the former Wakefield head coach Chris Chester as head of rugby and then made the ex-Wigan boss Adrian Lam the coach. Beaumont took a step back from the rugby side of things, handing more experienced individuals the reins, and the results were impressive.
Leigh swept aside the Championship, they won the 1895 Cup and bulldozed their way to promotion. “The key ingredients were Chezzie and Lammy,” says Beaumont.
In the off-season, they made some big-name recruits, including the former England international Zak Hardaker and the former Samoa centre Ricky Leutele. They were still tipped to struggle given their recent history but Leigh have won 12 of their 18 Super League games and are a force to be reckoned with.
“I’m really proud as a coach,” Lam says. “You’ve got to keep pinching yourselves. We keep working hard and we’re not finished yet.
“With nine games to go in the season, sitting second in the table and 80 minutes away from Wembley, it’s a nice time for the town. Just to talk about potentially going to Wembley, they haven’t been able to say that for a long time.”
With the prospect looming of IMG’s gradings that will determine who will play in Super League in 2025, Leigh are building off the field, too. There have been pre-match shows – featuring the bands Scouting for Girls and the Lottery Winners – and the club have introduced women’s, physical disability and learning disability sides with the goal of a youth academy that can rival neighbours Wigan in the offing.
But it is Super League success that is hoped will put the town and its 145-year-old club on the map. The prospect of Leigh winning a trophy has been compared to Leicester’s Premier League title. Beaumont, perhaps unsurprisingly, sees it differently. “I get the comparison but Leicester had to survive first then pull off the unthinkable,” he says. “If we do it from the off then in my opinion, it surpasses it.”
Victory against Salford would move Leigh a step closer to a playoff place and solidify second place. But their Challenge Cup semi-final against St Helens next Saturday looms, taking on an added significance given they have not played in the Wembley final since 1971. It is just another landmark that underlines Leigh’s remarkable progress in 18 months.
“I spoke to the group ahead of our first Challenge Cup game this year, and we looked back on footage from 1921 and 1971 [when Leigh won the Cup],” Beaumont says. “We spoke about what we could achieve and how it could be the benchmark for generations to come. It could all end with nothing in the cabinet and no finals, but I will still be the proudest I have ever been of this club.
“My seatbelt is fastened and I’m ready for the rest of the rollercoaster ride, wondering what the picture will be like at the end when I get off.”
It may not have a train station but Leigh’s rugby league club is certainly going places.
