T'Other Side: Leigh Leopards

      

Head Coach: Adrian Lam

Born in Papua New Guinea (but with a Liverpudlian mother), he became interim Head Coach at Wigan in 2019 with Shaun Edwards expected to take over in 2020. However, Edwards decided not to come after all and Lam continued as head coach for two further seasons. In 2022 he was replaced by Matty Peet and Lam moved ‘next door’ to Leigh. With Wigan he won the SL League Leaders Shield in 2020 and, at Leigh, he guided them to promotion from the Championship to Super League at the end of 2022. His first year in Super League with the newly renamed Leigh Leopards belied the expectations of all the pundits and they finished in fifth place and won the Challenge Cup.

He was head coach of Papua New Guinea from 2006 to 2009 and again from 2012 to 2015 including the 2008 and 2013 World Cups. He is currently the assistant coach of the Australian team.

His playing career was as a scrumhalf. He played 146 games for Sydney Roosters from 1994 to 2000. In 2001 he was signed by Wigan for whom he made 119 appearances during 5 years there.

He played many games for Papua New Guinea and was their captain in the 2000 World Cup. He also played for Queensland in State of Origin and had one game for a ‘Rest of the World’ team against Australia in 1997.

 

 

Captain: John Asiata

John Asiata, who is a prop or loose forward, was born in New South Wales but his mother was from Tonga and his father from Samoa.

He started his first-grade career with North Queensland Cowboys in 2014 and then moved to Brisbane Broncos in 2020. In 2021 he signed for Canterbury Bulldogs but was released without ever playing for them after he refused to have a Covid vaccination.

He joined Leigh in 2022 and in that first season there won an 1895 Cup winners medal and was part of the team that won the Grand Final and promotion to Super League. Adrian Lam appointed him as captain in 2023 which saw him collect the Challenge Cup Trophy (see below) after beating Hull KR in the final.

Through his parentage Asiata has played for both Samoa and Tonga.

 

Loan players

Following the injury to Edwin Ipape, Leigh have taken Brad Dwyer on loan from Warrington. From their own squad, Keanan Brand is out on loan at Bradford and Jacob Jones at London Broncos.

 

The Fev connection

We know of 42 players who have appeared for both Fev and Leigh and very few of those are from the pre ‘Summer Era’ period.

Zak Hardaker started his career with Fev, signing from Featherstone Lions in 2010 and made his début at the age of 18 against Hunslet and scored a hat trick. In the 19 games he played for Rovers he scored an amazing 28 tries and very quickly attracted the attention of Super League sides.

In 2011 he joined Leeds Rhinos but continued to play for Fev on dual reg at the beginning of the season. In 2016 he went on loan to Penrith Panthers and in 2017 joined Cas. He moved to Wigan in 2019, back to Leeds in 2022 and joined Leigh for their first season in Super League in 2023.

Zak has also played for England Knights, England and Great Britain.

 

Reni Maitua who played primarily in the second row, joined Fev in April 2015 after playing 174 NRL games for Canterbury Bulldogs, Cronulla Sharks and Parramatta Eels. He is one of only two players who have played for Fev who were full Australian internationals. He made a big impression in his 13 games for Fev and it was inevitable that he would be snapped up by a Super League team. He was signed by Salford and then joined Leigh in 2016. At the end of 2016 he retired but came out of retirement to play 8 games for Toronto Wolfpack in 2018.

At representative level Reni played for both Australia and Samoa.

One of the few to have played for both Leigh and Fev prior to the ‘Summer Era’ was Frank Moore. A prop forward, he joined Fev in 1958 at the age of 33 and made 61 appearances scoring 10 tries. His career started with Wakefield and before he joined Fev he played for Leigh, Batley, Hull KR and York. After 12 matches for Rovers in the 1959-60 season he returned to Wakefield Trinity.