Leigh Leopards will be looking for their first win since March 2023 at Craven Park
Leigh Leopards’ Adrian Lam shakes hands with Hull KR coach Willie Peters
Adrian Lam wants his Leigh Leopards side to travel to Hull KR on Friday night with a ‘different mentality’ in order to buck their Craven Park trend.
Craven Park has not been a happy hunting ground for the Leopards in recent seasons with Lam’s side failing to score a single point on their last two visits to the east Hull.
In fact, Leigh’s last win at Craven Park came in March 2023, shortly after their return to Super League, with the last five games being miserable affairs from a Leigh perspective.
As such, Lam is working hard to ensure that the Leopards approach Friday’s game with a fresh mindset, parking previous memories and looking ahead positively having pushed KR all the way just a month ago at Leigh Sports Village.
“I think it’s been difficult to go up there in the last 10 years regardless whether they’re the club they are at the moment or in the past,” Lam said on Craven Park. “It’s the long travel on a Friday, getting there early and changing things around, but for us, they’re improved as a club and as a team and they just play, tough, good rugby.
“In the last two or three years we haven’t been there with our strongest side and we’ve always gone there with injuries. We’re doing the same again. I’m not making excuses, but we haven’t had a full side.
“It’s going to be another tough challenge for us to go there and I’ve no doubt that they’ve got some of their own injuries that they’re still deciding on. We need to go up there and change the mentality because we have been beaten in the last years there so it’s something we’re working hard on.”
Lam knows Willie Peters well having coached against him for the last four seasons in Super League while they also came across each other in their playing careers and lives down under.
However, Peters will be taking charge of Papua New Guinea Chiefs at the end of the season ensuring Friday night will be the last time the two head coaches go head to head in a regular season game.
“I’ve known Willie for a long time and when he finished playing at Wigan, I replaced him as a player and moved into the house that he had,” Lam said.
“I’ve known him also through the NRL, being involved down there and living pretty close together in Sydney.
“He’s done an amazing job at Hull KR, they’ve been very successful, they’ve spent the money to get the facilities and squad in place and that’s what you do to be successful. He’s done a great job.”