Leigh Centurions are facing yet more injury woes as two more are likely to miss their Good Friday game with Warrington Wolves, as they go in search of a first win back in the top flight.
Head Coach John Duffy confirmed in a press conference today that St Helens loanee Matty Foster broke his jaw in two places, after a head clash with Wigan's Morgan Smithies in the opening game of the season. The boss also told said that Joe Mellor played the game injured, and is a doubt for the game at the Totally Wicked Stadium. The news leaves Duffy pondering his half back options, with Jamie Ellis set to be out for another 6 to 8 weeks.
"We've got to make sure we've got some quality there, we've seen some quality there with the halves at the other clubs, so we've got to make sure that we're looking around to see if there's some quality to bring in".
"It's tough for everyone. We've just got to crack on and do the best we can".
On a more positive injury front, Leigh hope to have Ben Flower back as early as next week while fellow new recruit James Bell could be back the week after. Tyrone McCarthy should be able to make his debut against Warrington, with Craig Mullen also back in contention.
Game Management the key lesson learnt
John Duffy has said his side need to learn from Wigan's example of game management, if they are to get a first win of the season against Warrington in Round 2. He described the Warriors as failing to become "bored of doing the boring things" once they took the lead through Jake Bibby's second try; and that's part of an improved kicking game which Duffy would like to see from his troops this time around...
"I just thought we could've done a bit better with our last tackle options, certainly in that second half. We spoke about splitting Winger and Full Back, and we were just kicking down the Full Back's throat a lot... it just zapped our energy a little bit then at the back end when we had a bit of ball where we could have used it a bit more too our advantage".
Next up, wounded Wolves...
Friday's opponents Warrington opened their 2021 account with defeat to Castleford, but have already given Leigh a taste of what they can do when they ran out comfortable winners in a pre season Friendly. Duffy spoke of how his side were "towelled up there a few weeks ago" adding that Warrington "play some good stuff off their shape with Widdop and Austin... They'll throw a lot at us, a lot more than Wigan threw at us last week."
The Wolves were on the list of scalps that the Leythers took in their last Super League campaign, winning 22-8 at the LSV in March 2017. After pushing the Warriors close in Round 1, Leigh will fancy causing Warrington problems. And for Duffy, he's keen to see if his side can compete once again against one of the competition best: "We've just got to try and be consistent at this level which is going to be a big cue for us to see how we go this year. So if we can back it up this week, if we can do it consistently over the next few weeks, I think we'll do alright."
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