Returning trio Aaron Pene hopes for playoffs

Leigh Leopards manager Adrian Lam met the media in the post-match press conference following the 24-6 defeat at Wigan Warriors, discussing several talking points.

Lam was asked about the trio returning from the treatment room, Aaron Pene’s second appearance in a Leigh shirt, his belief of making the play-offs and returning home to Leigh Sports Village next week after five straight games.

Here’s the review and summary of everything that was said in the Leopards debrief.

The return of key trio John Asiata, Robbie Mulhern and Gareth O’Brien

The Leopards welcomed John Asiata, Robbie Mulhern and Gareth O’Brien back into the mix for the Battle of Borough, with the key trio leaving Lam impressed with what he saw, while stalwart prop Tom Amone provided a strong show through the middle.

“He (Amone) was wonderful. We’ve got John Asiata back who hasn’t been there all year, Robbie Mulhern who’s only played a few games and I thought he was outstanding tonight: both him and Tom Amone.

“I think if Edwin Ipape scores that try right at the start of the game when Bevan (the Frenchman) made that try-saving tackle, I don’t know how he stopped that but he did… There are a few key points but going forward They welcome those guys and Gaz O’Brien back, and Gaz missed the whole year, so it’s nice to have them back in the team.”

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John Asiata has 25 minutes under his belt on his return

“It was meant to be less than that, but it played a little bit more (than we expected). I think it was 20 minutes, but I don’t want to overdo it, it’s been out for a long time, it’s not 100% yet, so we just have to make sure we’re on it. his minutes, so that was the plan to bring him in 10 minutes into the second half and play him 15 or 20 minutes.”

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Aaron Pene’s second appearance at Leigh

“He played a bit more than he was meant to but like every player we bring in from the NRL he will take six to 10 weeks to settle. Obviously we’re running out of time, but his journey is about playing his part for the team. I’m really excited about what’s next for him, so we’ll manage this process as we go.”

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Feel like there’s still time to break into the top six?

“Yes, they do. Traditionally one or two teams will give up and hopefully slip up and if they don’t then we don’t get away with it. But I think it’s been difficult to be away from home for so long but to coming home now with three games in a row and a big team is pretty exciting so I’m looking forward to that.”

Do you think you have to win all your remaining games to get into the play-offs?

“There’s an amount we’ve got there, I don’t know exactly what it is now, but we’ve got to win 90% of it, so we can probably only allow one or two slip-ups and that’s it. I’ve brought it up to the team, but I don’t want to keep talking about it every week. I think we would have beaten any other team in the competition tonight to be honest with the way we played, so we’re looking forward to that moving forward.”

Returning home after five straight games

“It’s been quite a hectic last couple of months, but we get home now against Huddersfield, then London and Saints, so we’ve got three games in a row at our new ground. It’s been redone and it looks amazing, I think the grounds people have done an amazing job: it looks incredible. We’re pretty excited about it and we’ve got to come back and hopefully take the momentum with the way we played tonight into next week’s game and try to kick on and make some plays.”

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