Super League: Team news ahead of Leigh vs Leeds and Huddersfield vs Catalans
Last Updated: 21/07/21 3:16pm
Thursday night sees two Super League games taking place as Leigh look for their first win of the season against Leeds, while league leaders Catalans travel to Huddersfield.
Leigh vs Leeds
Leigh interim head coach Kurt Haggerty says he has a few tricks up his sleeve as he seeks to guide the Centurions to a first Super League win at the expense of Leeds at Headingley on Thursday night.
The Centurions have lost all 12 matches since being fast-tracked into the top flight for 2021 but have shown signs of improvement since Haggerty took charge a month ago, having scored 90 points in their four games under him.
"I thought there were a lot of positives to take from our game at Warrington last week, especially on our edges," said Haggerty.
"Leeds are a team that can certainly score points from all over the field, and they are a team which has some real strike.
"We've got some ideas we want to try against them. We've come up with some things, especially in offence, where we can trouble them.
"Across the board, we are doing some really good things, we just have to bring it all together."
Leigh have not beaten Leeds since gaining an 18-6 Stones Bitter Championship victory at Hilton Park in February 1988 but Rhinos coach Richard Agar is warning his players to expect a stern challenge after witnessing the improvements under Haggerty.
"They will see this as a great opportunity and I'm sure their coach will be finding some positives from their last three or four performances," Agar said.
"I know they've lost every game but offensively they have shown a willingness to throw the ball about and they've certainly got some strike in the backs.
"I've seen enough to suggest that, if they get enough of the ball, they can ask you some serious questions.
"I like their attitude, they are turning up and having a crack with the ball. The numbers say defence has been an issue but I like their style of play."
While Haggerty expects to welcome back experienced forwards Adam Sidlow and Alex Gerrard from lengthy injury lay-offs, Agar is still well down on numbers, having lost Luke Gale, Bodene Thompson and Alex Mellor to suspension and Konrad Hurrell and Richie Myler to injury.
With a half-back crisis, Agar will turn to one of - or even both - Rob Lui and Callum McClelland to step up on their first appearances of the season while Matt Prior, Kruise Leeming and Mikolaj Oledzki will play their third games in seven
days after appearing in the England-All Stars match last Friday.
Huddersfield vs Catalans
In Thursday's other game table-toppers Catalans Dragons will seek to extend their winning sequence to seven matches when they visit Huddersfield, who have lost their last three.
Huddersfield lost Darnell McIntosh, Matty English and James Cunningham to injury in the defeat at Hull, while skipper Aidan Sezer sustained an ankle injury playing for the All Stars. Jermaine McGillvary, Ricky Leutele, Luke Yates, Kenny Edwards and Chris McQueen are all returnees.
Catalans have England internationals Sam Tomkins and Tom Davies back in the team, and the former believes there is still plenty more to come from the French outfit.
"We've won the last couple of games, but we've probably not played quite as well as we would have liked to," Tomkins told Sky Sports.
"They're games we could have lost; against Leigh and Castleford we probably weren't where we need to be to beat the best teams, so this week is about our own performance and just improving over the last few weeks."
Also returning to the team is captain Benjamin Garcia, who missed the win at Castleford through injury. However, he may have to do a stint at dummy-half in the absence of both specialist hookers Micky McIlorum and Alrix Da Costa.
