“We knew what we were getting into” says Leigh coach

Leigh coach John Duffy was making no excuses for their situation after they suffered a third consecutive defeat at the hands of Castleford on Friday night.

The Centurions were soundly beaten 52-16, their fourth defeat in as many weeks following league losses to Wigan and Warrington and last week’s Challenge Cup exit to Huddersfield.

It’s been a tough start to the campaign, after they won the race to replace Toronto Wolfpack – chosen ahead of six other Championship clubs.

That late start – they only knew they were going to be joining Super League in mid-December – coupled with the handicap of reduced central funding had them as relegation favourites going in to the campaign.

Duffy said: “We copped a few injuries and it was the same story as the first couple of games, having to shuffle people around and play people out of position.

“But we’ve got to take it on the chin and get on with it. We’ve got to stick together as a group and try to get out of this fight that we’re in.

“We knew when we made the bid for Super League that this was what we’d get into, and this is what we’re dealing with now, so there are no excuses from us.”

Leigh lost forward Adam Sidlow to injury in the first half, but were able to hand Super League debuts to James Bell and Nathan Peats, their recent acquisition from Gold Coast Titans.

Also missing from the Castleford game were centres Iain Thornley and Junior Sa’u, as well as new signing Anthony Gelling.

Australians Black Wallace and Brendan Elliot were also absent, with loan capture from St Helens, Josh Simm, starting in the centres.