Josh Charnley's dramatic record-equalling try saw brilliant Leigh fire into the Super League play-offs.
With an absorbing final regular game against St Helens locked at 12-12, Leopards were in danger of seeing their top-six hopes go up in smoke. But after Sione Mata’utia spilled near his own line, ruthless Leopards swung into action to get prolific winger Charnley over in the 67th minute. It saw him draw level in second with Leeds legend Danny McGuire in Super League’s greatest-ever try-scorers on 247.
And it was the least his fired-up side deserved as they ousted St Helens from fifth spot to set up a trip to Salford in next Friday's elimination play-off. Proud boss Adrian Lam said: “It’s hard work isn’t it?! I was feeling OK until a couple of silly errors at the end but I’m so proud of the team.
"We’d been under the pump in 13 games and how we responded to that pressure is credit to the players. I’m really proud of what they did out there and we look forward to next week.”
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Needing a win to be certain of making the play-offs, they had led 12-0 after an impressive performance before the game almost turned on its head following a controversial sin-bin. Ricky Leutele was given a 53rd minute yellow card for what looked like a perfectly legal, solid tackle on Jack Welsby.
By the time the Samoa centre returned, his side had conceded twice and seen their advantage disappear. Tommy Makinson did brilliantly get over with the tightest of finishes in the corner for Jon Bennison to convert. And Saints scored in the next set when Matt Moylan catastrophically allowed a hanging Jonny Lomax kick to bounce. Morgan Knowles picked up the pieces to dive over and Bennison levelled.
But red-hot Leigh, with John Asiata in inspirational form and now enjoying ten wins in 12 games, had the last laugh via Charnley. After Moylan added a penalty, Leutele fittingly also produced a try-saving tackle on Mata’utia at the death. Saints drop to sixth and must now head to Warrington in their sudden-death game next Saturday.
Leigh were hammered 24-0 by Hull KR here a week earlier but there was no way they’d fall flat again. And that was clear to see as they blitzed into Saints from the off. Adrian Lam’s pumped-up side were fast, powerful and relentless to set the tone. They forced a number of errors from shaky Saints who saw Aussie hooker Moses Mbye pull-out after an injury issue in warm-up.
The result ended Catalans’ and Leeds’ hopes of breaking into the six. Makinson had an early effort chalked off for an obstruction before Leigh took control. Welsby’s foot slipped into touch when gathering a kick and in the next set, Asiata barged through young Jake Burns - Mbye’s late replacement - before stretching over. Moylan converted before Lam got him into space to get Leutele racing over for a 37th minute try. Leutele was worried later with that yellow - but it didn’t matter.
