Any team trying to get promoted has the handicap of playing a lot of games that aren’t going to be much of a test and so it’s easy to develop bad habits that won’t be exposed by the lesser sides but will be ruthlessly targeted by the SL sides.
That was certainly the situation with us last year. It seemed to be the situation with Leigh too who started the 8s with some decent performances but didn’t manage to get any wins but by the end were pretty dismal. For us it was the same apart from vs Salford and in the MPG.
Leigh have a lot of quality on paper. How that translates onto the pitch by the 8s is going to be interesting. It’s easy to look good versus the likes of Swinton and Oldham compared with the likes of Hull KR, Widnes etc. It might be a shock when they come along after so many easy games. A decent cup run proved to be no help when it came to competing in the 8s either. Will that extra quality prove to be enough to get Leigh up? I’m not sure.
As for us we have some decent depth (apart from at halfback). I think we may be looking at recruitment later in the season and try and do a “Wakefield”. I’m not sure we have the quality we need so the key for us is Lowes ensuring we arrive at the business end with our best 17 in good shape and not fatigued from having too much rugby as was the case with the likes of at least O’Brien and Pitts last season.
That means a regular rotation of players for a change. One that’s a test of man management skills but it needs to happen.
