Adrian Lam delivers 'proud' verdict on Leigh Leopards' win over Wigan Warriors as resilience hailed

The Warriors led 8-0 at half-time thanks to a first half try from Jake Wardle, as well as two penalty goals from Adam Keighran. However, Leigh produced a comeback in the second half, scoring three tries through Tesi Niu, Edwin Ipape and Owen Trout to claim an 18-8 win, and ultimately, the two points.

“I thought we were really tough and resilient,” said Lam. “We were poor at times last week (against Leeds Rhinos), so we needed to respond to that, and I think the boys did.

"We’ve had a lot of moving pieces this week in the sense of players coming in and going out, and in terms of moving positions, so it was always going to be a real challenge, but I’m just proud.

"We haven’t played at home for six weeks roughly, so we needed to play well coming back here for the fans because they’ve supported us really well on the road.”

With the Leopards 8-0 behind at the break, Lam admitted he didn’t think the full-time score would end the way it did, but the Papua New Guinean was proud of the skill his side displayed in their second half comeback.

"I felt we should’ve led at half-time, to be honest with you,” Lam continued. “I thought we blew three clear chances and another half a chance, I thought we put ourselves in a position to score them but we didn’t, and you’ve got to score them in the big games, so I just gave the players that belief at half-time that the opportunities would come, but we just had to nail the skill, and I thought the tries we scored in the second half were really classy.

"I think we’ve been scoring some amazing tries this season, but we’ve blown a lot just from not nailing the skill, and I thought the way we went down the right side with Umyla (Hanley) finding that pass inside to Edwin Ipape was as good a try as we’ve had this year, so they’re the ones we need to keep nailing because they’re not set plays for us, they’re just ad lib rugby, so I was just happy we got a few of those out.”

Lam believes the win over reigning champions Wigan will help instil a belief in his side as they look to secure a spot in the play-offs come the end of the regular season.

"I think we needed something like tonight, to be honest,” Lam added. “We’ve been playing reasonably well, but we’ve had patches in games where we’ve dropped off.

"We’re sitting in third spot as we speak, but we feel we’re a long way from where we want to be, so we’re continuously building on that and certain players being injured at certain times has stifled that moving forward, but I thought it was important we got a strong result tonight and then we can cement that top six spot at some point in the next four or five weeks.”