Leigh coach John Duffy on signing of Nathan Peats

Leigh coach John Duffy says the club’s signing of Nathan Peats will add a wealth of experience to his side.

The 30-year-old hooker has made more than 160 NRL appearances and played three games for New South Wales in State of Origin in 2017.

Leigh coach John Duffy said: “Nathan is a recent State of Origin player who brings a wealth of experience and he’s looking forward to joining our club and getting stuck in.

“He will augment the very good squad that we have put together and he will add his own qualities to the group.”

Leigh owner Derek Beaumont said: “Nathan is a solid player proven at the highest level and is testament to our commitment to add quality players to our squad.

“It’s important that we are patient and bring not only the right players but the right people. Duffs, his backroom team and the lads have come together to form a great group with a real passion to seize this opportunity presented to us in the Betfred Super League. That was clear to see with the attitude and the performance at St Helens.

“I believe we have a quality squad and the lads have demonstrated that but in the Betfred Super League you really do need depth in numbers and quality. We have seen how easy it is to lose players in preseason training let alone warm-up games.

“The games come thick and fast and backing them up is the toughest part especially when there are three short turnaround weekends seeing us travel in five of the six of them. Two hookers over that layout of the season is too demanding on them and would expose them unfairly to risks and with injuries an unknown quantity we need to have cover across every spot as well as competition.

“My job is to make Duffs’ job harder picking his team. While we are really happy with all the players in their positions we will continually look to add depth and quality to the squad to be the best we can be and drives standards even higher which helps the whole group achieve their goals.”

READ: Ryan Brierley embracing challenge of full-back role in Leigh’s Super League return

Duffy is also hoping the club’s off-field recruitment can help them quickly catch up with the established top flight clubs.

He added: “Obviously with the short turnaround, it was about getting the players who had not played for 12 months up to the speed of Super League.

“That was the big task for us, getting the right staff members in, which we feel we have done with Paul Johnson from Wigan Warriors coming in as head of strength and conditioning and physio Trent Bowden joining from Hull KR.

“With their standards, coming from those clubs, it has picked us up.

“So we’re as good as we can be after the short preparation time. Everybody is excited and everybody has bought in and trained really hard.”

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