Table topping Catalans Dragons welcome bottom club Leigh Centurions to Stade Gilbert Brutus

Last-placed Leigh Centurions make the trip across the channel to the Stade Gilbert Brutus in Perpignan to take on current toppers Catalans Dragons. 

Having lost just two of their 19 games so far this campaign, the Dragons deservedly hold the top spot with a win percentage of over 89%, and with just a few weeks of the regular season remaining, it doesn’t look like they are losing first anytime soon.

If Steve McNamara’s side claim the League Leaders’ Shield, it will be a first for the club, however, all focus for the French outfit will be on making further history by qualifying for, and winning, the Grand Final at Old Trafford. Last time out, Catalans picked up another comfortable victory, winning 42-14 against Salford Red Devils.

While the story of the season reads entirely differently for bottom of the table Leigh, the Centurions did have some success of their own recently with their first win of the campaign against Salford at the Leigh Sports Village. That victory ended a run of 18 consecutive defeats, 16 of those in the Super League, dating all the way back to March 2020.

Still in an ‘interim head coach’ role, Kurt Haggerty saw his side lose out to second-placed St Helens in their last outing at the Totally Wicked stadium. 42-12 was the final score but there were only six points separating the sides up until the 57th minute. The Centurions were in the game for a long period and can certainly take positives from the encounter.

Ultimately, it does look like Leigh’s fate regarding relegation will now be in the hands of the RFL. Nothing has been decided regarding promotion from the Championship and/or relegation from the Super League, so it’s a nervous waiting game for the Centurions.

At this point in the season, they have little chance of avoiding the ‘drop’ mathematically, so in all truth, they’re now playing for pride.

Squads

Both Catalans and Leigh will have absentees on Monday evening as the demanding schedule of the Super League continues to take its toll, though 21-men have been named from both camps.

McNamara’s Dragons are without seven of their squad with the most notable being club captain Benjamin Garcia. A French international, Garcia is still undergoing recovery from a broken arm suffered in a 32-30 victory against Hull Kingston Rovers a couple of weeks ago.

Dean Whare, Alrix Da Costa, Paul Séguier, Matt Whitley, Jason Baitieri and Arthur Romano make up the rest of the list of missing Catalans players.

As for the Centurions, their absentee list stands at 12 players for the trip to Perpignan through either unavailability or non-selection. Amongst those is club captain Liam Hood whose transfer to Wakefield Trinity for next season was announced earlier this week.

Leigh are relying heavily on both new and loan signings at the moment due to their ever-growing ‘unavailable’ list. Tom Nisbet is one of those, signed on an initial one-week loan deal from St Helens in the week, and will be on the plane over to France. Fellow new signing Jai Whitbread is also in the squad and is in line for a debut.

They will be joined by the fit-again Ryan Brierley who made a return to action in the defeat against the Saints last Thursday.

Head-to-Head

With Leigh being relegated from the Super League for the first time in 2005 and Catalans entering the competition in 2006, the two sides had to wait until 2017, the year that the Centurions returned to the top-flight, to face off.

Consequently, the sides have only ever met five times but incredibly, four of those came in that 2017 season. The Dragons completed a league double before Leigh pulled off a shock 30-6 win in the Qualifiers.

For those who don’t remember that competition format, the four bottom clubs in the Super League entered a mini-league with the four top teams from the Championship. Once that mini-league concluded, the three top placings were automatically entered into rugby league’s top-flight for the following season.

Fourth and fifth however had to play a one-off game, like a play-off final in football, dubbed the ‘Million Pound Game’. Hosted at the LSV, the Centurions, huge favourites on the day, came up against Catalans once again but were left dejected as the French outfit secured a 26-10 win, relegating Leigh in the process.

The Centurions did not make their return to the Super League until this campaign where they have already come up against a now table-topping Dragons side and once more, defeat came their way. Despite a mightily impressive performance on the most part by the home side at the LSV back in June, McNamara’s men earned a 36-30 victory.

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