Leigh Leopards travel to Headingley Stadium on Sunday for a Betfred Super League Round 21 game against Leeds Rhinos (3pm) televised live by Sky Sports.
The Wembley bound Leopards defeated the Rhinos 20-6 at the Leopards Den in April with Edwin Ipape scoring two tries and Kai O’Donnell also crossing while Ben Reynolds kicked four goals.
Several Leopards players will be looking forward to a return to their old stomping ground with Zak Hardaker, Tom Briscoe, Robbie Mulhern and Ava Seumanufagai all having played for the Rhinos during their careers.
Hardaker and Briscoe will be particularly remembered by the Rhinos faithful with affection. Hardaker scored 69 tries in 173 games for the club while Briscoe scored 93 tries in 208 games.
Briscoe wrote himself into the Leeds and Challenge Cup history books by scoring five tries in the Rhinos’ 2015 Challenge Cup Final victory over Hull KR at Wembley, an individual performance that saw him awarded the Lance Todd Trophy.
Last weekend’s defeat in the Battle of the Borough at Wigan Warriors was only the Leopards’ second reverse in 15 outings and they will be keen to go into Wembley week on the back of a win that will also boost their standing in the Super League table.
Currently in third place, with 26 points from 20 games, the Leopards are eight points ahead of the Rhinos, whose narrow defeat at St Helens left them in eighth place, four points adrift of the play-off places.
The Rhinos have several former Leigh players in their squad including Nene Macdonald who played a big part in the treble winning season of 2022. James McDonnell enjoyed a successful extended loan spell at LSV last season from Wigan before making the permanent move to Headingley.
Local lad Luis Roberts has built on last season’s first team opportunities at Leigh by making six appearances for the Rhinos so far.
Josh Charnley with 23 tries leads the Leopards’ scoring charts with fellow winger Tom Briscoe on 16 tries for the campaign while Ben Reynolds leads the points chart with 154pts from five tries and 67 goals.
Tom Amone, captain John Asiata, Briscoe, Charnley and Lachlan Lam have all been ever-present so far this season with no less than ten players making 20 appearances or more.
Ash Handley and Rhyse Martin lead the Rhinos’ try charts, each having scored ten tries, while Martin has amassed 164pts.
The Rhinos have won only one of their last six home games at Headingley, losing to Salford, Wigan in the cup, St Helens, Castleford and Hull KR, a sequence broken only by a 54-0 win over Huddersfield.
But you must go back to April 1984 for Leigh’s last win at Headingley over Leeds when John Woods gave a Tuesday night masterclass, scoring all his side’s points in a 24-18 victory. Woods scored three tries and kicked six goals that evening, an individual performance still fresh in the memory of veteran Leigh supporters fortunate enough to be there that day.
Since then, Leigh have lost on each of their last 12 visits to play Leeds at Headingley, but the ground does have recent happy memories as it was the venue for Leigh’s Championship grand final victory over Featherstone Rovers in 2014.
