Jukes: We need to be clinical

Leigh head coach Neil Jukes warned his team needed to be more clinical if they are to win close matches this season.

The Centurions suffered their second defeat of the season against Leeds Rhinos after being thrashed by Castleford last week.

Leigh were just pipped by three points in a tight match with Leeds.

“They’re going to be fine margins and we’re going to have win some tight games and to do that we have to nail them plays when they’re presented to us,” Jukes said.

“Tonight we should have won a game so I’m really disappointed in that.”

The loss of captain Micky Higham and vice-captain Glenn Stewart to injury before kick-ogg meant Leigh were lacking in experience, according to Jukes.

“We’d lost that little bit of experience with Micky [Higham] who is our captain,” he said.

“Likewise with our Vice-Captain Glenn Stewart not being out there.”

Jukes was happy to see his side learn from last week and focus on improving the attack and not rely on defence.

“We just hung on to defend last week,” he said.

“We had to find the energy to attack.

“When we did that tonight it kind of made our defence a little bit easier.”

Out of the players currently on the sidelines, Jukes suggested Higham had the best chance of featuring against Saints next week.

“Micky we would hope,” he said.

“He came through all his testing again so he’s really disappointed he wasn’t involved tonight.”