Leigh Centurions to pay tribute to Des Drummond as they open Betfred Championship season at home to Whitehaven

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Leigh Centurions will pay tribute to former player and Rugby League great Des Drummond as they begin their Betfred Championship campaign at home to Whitehaven. 

Jamaican-born Drummond recently passed away at the age of 63 and Leigh will honour a great who made 280 of his 568 career club appearances at the Centurions between 1976 and 1986.

Along with 34 appearances for Great Britain, five for England and four for the county of Lancashire, the former winger will undoubtedly be fondly remembered as a legend of the game with the Leythers paying their respects this afternoon at the Leigh Sports Village.

New men in the dugouts

Relegated from the Super League with only two victories to their name last season, it was evident that change was needed and was going to happen at Leigh.

After the departure of previous Head Coach John Duffy early on in the previous campaign, assistant boss Kurt Haggerty took the reins on a temporary basis but ended up seeing out the season.

While Haggerty will still be in and around the coaching staff this time around, the Leythers will be led by new boss Adrian Lam who left local rivals Wigan Warriors in September.

Lam holds pedigree within the sport after a successful playing career and won the League Leaders’ Shield with Wigan in 2020.

Meanwhile, Whitehaven will have Jonty Gorley as Head Coach in a competitive game for the first time in the Betfred Championship season opener.

Also a part-time welder, Gorley was the assistant to former Head Coach Gary Charlton last season, but the latter has since moved up into the Director of Rugby role at the club.

Gorley will no doubt have his work cut out if he is to better last season’s sixth-place finish, which saw Haven reach the second division play-offs.

Squads

As always at the start of a new season, part of the hype surrounding the first game is finding out which players are going to be on show, both new and old.

Leigh boss Lam has named a 20-man squad for the visit of Haven with a mix of new signings and players that were at the club last season who have been retained.

Joe Mellor and Adam Sidlow are two of those who were with the Leythers in the last campaign and have been named as co-captains for the season ahead so will be involved against Whitehaven. The Centurions’ new signings, Ata Hingano and Tom Amone, are also included in the squad.

As for Haven, boss Gorley has opted to select a 21-man squad ahead of the journey from Cumbria to Leigh. If used, seven of those 21 are in line for a first-ever competitive outing in a Whitehaven shirt.

Chris Taylor and Karl Dixon picked up injuries in pre-season so are unlikely to be involved, while Connor Holliday is also suspended as he serves a one-match penalty notice picked up in one of those warm-up games.

Pre-Season

Unusually, Leigh played just one warm-up game ahead of the season and it came against Super League Grand Final winners St Helens in Alex Walmsley’s testimonial.

A stern test for the Leythers against a club that have won three consecutive Grand Finals ended in defeat, however, Lam’s side put on a good showing and lost out marginally 16-6 at the Totally Wicked Stadium after being in the game for long periods.

Whitehaven meanwhile played two pre-season matches with both of those ending in defeat.

Gorley’s side first lost out in the Ike Southward Memorial Trophy away at Workington Town, conceding with the last play of the game to suffer an 18-14 defeat.

The Marras were then defeated on the road once more at League 1 side Swinton Lions who ran out 28-22 winners on the day.

Head-To-Head

With the two clubs no strangers to the Championship, they are also no strangers to one another and have met a total of 40 times in all competitions.

Leigh have come out on top in 30 of those encounters, including the last 11 in a row, which will not make good reading for those of a Whitehaven persuasion but the sides have not met since June 2016. On that occasion, the Leythers beat Whitehaven 36-12 away from home.

Haven’s last victory against Leigh came in June 2009 courtesy of a 36-22 success at the Whitehaven Sports Centre, though history will probably count for little to either side ahead of today’s kick-off.

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