Leigh head coach Adrian Lam believes last year’s dramatic Betfred Challenge Cup final win over Hull KR at Wembley laid the foundations for the club to become a recognised force at the top of the domestic game.

Lachlan Lam’s golden-point drop goal sealed a 17-16 win and sealed a stunning first season back in the top-flight for the newly rebranded Leopards, who also defied expectations by reaching the end-of-season play-offs.

Second-season syndrome has struck this term with the Leopards currently languishing in ninth place as they prepare to reprise their Wembley showdown when they head to Craven Park to face buoyant Rovers in the quarter-finals this Saturday.

But Lam, who concedes KR will be “red hot favourites” for their latest meeting, is confident that the lessons learned from their success in the last campaign will stand them in good stead for the foreseeable future.

He said: “The Challenge Cup was one of the greatest moments for the club in the past century, and it created some memories that we will keep in our hearts – not just the players and staff but the whole town.

“Our town hasn’t had too much to cheer about over the last 50 years, and this has really given it some hope and a breath of fresh air, for people to be able to come down and support a team that they know has a chance of winning every week.

“And I think for supporters of other sports, they know who we are now. We have etched our name in the history and folklore, and as a club we have given ourselves an identity for people to watch and support.”

Leigh will go into the game on the back of consecutive derby defeats to Wigan and Salford, in contrast to KR, who have scored three straight wins including last week’s 50-10 triumph over rock-bottom London.

Lam described Rovers’ recent form as “scintillating”, and suggested the hosts will be up for the fight in light of what happened at Wembley last year: “They will be emotionally connected to that, so we have to match it,” he added.

However, Rovers head coach Willie Peters insists the tumult of last year’s Wembley occasion will play no part in their quest to build on their promising early-season form and seal their place in the semi-finals.

“A lot of people will be talking about what happened last year, but we’re certainly not,” said Peters.

“It’s a different year, a new year. It’s the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup in 2024. All we’re focusing on is going out there this weekend and getting a result.”

Leigh are likely to be boosted by the return of prop Tom Amone after a month out with a foot injury, while Jez Litten will return for Rovers in place of Ben Reynolds, who is cup-tied.

A community rugby league team established just a year ago primarily as a means to raise funds and awareness for mental health charities are preparing to make their debut in the Betfred Challenge Cup on Saturday.

South Wales Jets qualified by virtue of having soared unbeaten through their first season in the Welsh Premiership, and will take on seasoned Challenge Cup campaigners Stanningley in Ebbw Vale.

And while they harbour ambitions of bringing higher-level rugby league back to the region, the club’s founder Liam Price is determined that the mental health message will stay at the front and centre at the Jets.

Price, a former local rugby union player, told the PA news agency: “The idea to form a club came during furlough when I discovered how much I missed the social aspect of being involved in a rugby team.

“Before Covid I was something of a workaholic, and going from 80-hour weeks to nothing really affected me. I was one of those people who never really saw mental health as an issue, and all of sudden I found that I physically couldn’t get out of bed.

“After speaking to some of my friends who were going through a similar experience, the idea came up to start what would essentially be a charity sports team that would play a few union sevens tournaments raise some money and awareness.

“It got to the point where we decided to step up it and switch to league in order to enter the Welsh Premiership. But the mental health message will always remain central.”

Since their inauguration, the Jets have raised over £12,000 for a number of charities, chiefly the community-based Signposted Cymru, which has pride of place on the club shirts, and helped refer 17 young men for mental health counselling.

After a stellar first season, on-pitch ambitions involve a potential move to the Southern Conference League, but Price is wary of the fate that has befallen previous attempts to kick-start the sport in the region, most recently West Wales Raiders, who resigned from League One at the end of the 2022 campaign.

Four ex-Raiders are currently part of the Jets set-up, while former Super League players and Welsh internationals Ben Flower and Lloyd White have been working with the club to help prepare them for the daunting challenge of facing Stanningley.

Ebbw Vale itself is no stranger to league, having boasted a professional side that competed regularly in the Northern Union, and were the last Welsh club to be dissolved in 1912. But for Price there is still some way for the undoubted talent in the region to be realised.

“There’s a lot of talent in South Wales but the code is just severely under-funded,” said Price. “We looked at moving into the SCL but because of the distance between the teams it’s not financially viable at the current time.

“We’ve got a longer-term plan but we don’t want to make the same kind of mistakes that teams like the Raiders have done. We know we’re probably too strong for the Welsh league but it is important for the club that we do things properly.”

Lachlan Lam kicked the first golden point in Betfred Challenge Cup final history as Leigh Leopards ended over half a century of hurt by clinching a dramatic 17-16 win over Hull KR at Wembley.

Lam, the son of Leopards head coach Adrian, made no mistake in a dramatic extra period after team-mate Gareth O’Brien spurned an earlier chance and Brad Schneider also fell short for Rovers.

Tom Briscoe’s late try left Leigh within two minutes of victory in normal time before Matt Parcell pounced to slap down a high kick and Schneider’s nerveless conversion forced the extra period.

It was a remarkable ending to an absorbing but error-strewn affair in which the magnitude of the occasion clearly got to both sides as they sought to end their long waits for silverware.

And all the more amazing was the sight of the leopardskin-clad Leigh staff storming onto the pitch to celebrate one of the most remarkable Cup wins in the sport’s history in the first season back among the game’s elite.

In truth Leigh had always looked the better team with Rovers fortunate to emerge from a mistake-filled first period with just a two-point deficit after losing Elliot Minchella for the last 10 minutes of the half for a high tackle.

And Parcell’s late intervention – awarded after a nailbiting series of replays to determine if Kane Linnett had knocked on – might have favoured Rovers, fresh from a similar golden point escape act in their semi-final win over Wigan.

The errors continued in the early heart-stopping moments of the extra period with O’Brien, whose drop goal for Salford had relegated Rovers in 2016, inches from repeating the misery before his team-mate Lam came to the rescue.

Errors had poured in from the opening set, Rhys Kennedy’s fumble handing Leigh the early advantage, before Ben Reynolds kicked Leigh into a two-point lead after Minchella was penalised for charging in to protest a tackle by John Asiata.

Asiata’s tackling technique has been the subject of strong criticism in recent weeks but the apparent plot back-fired on Rovers who fell behind then spectacularly failed to capitalise when O’Brien grounded a routine kick.

Handed the initiative 15 metres from the Leigh line, Schneider served up a loose pass which almost sent Leigh winger Josh Charnley scampering clear, with Rovers plainly struggling to adapt to the occasion.

Seemingly at the centre of everything, Minchella wrested the initiative on the quarter-hour with a rugged run that split the Leigh line before he handed over to Jez Litten to shunt Rovers in front.

Schneider atoned for his earlier error with the conversion and as Rovers pressed again, Tom Opacic was denied a penalty try after protesting he was pulled back as he tried to force his way through.

Leigh responded with a sweeping move that ended with Lam scampering clear under the posts, and when Minchella saw yellow for going high on Reynolds shortly after the Leigh stand-off’s conversion, it looked set to be a testing last 10 for Rovers.

Schneider came to Rovers’ rescue by stopping O’Brien in his tracks, then desperate defending kept Zak Hardaker and Josh Charnley at Bay, and Rovers even narrowed the deficit from Schneider’s long-range kick on the hooter after Ed Chamberlain coughed up the final error of a wild and woolly first half.

Schneider kicked Rovers level as the second half started in much the same fashion as the first, but Leigh were slowly ratcheting up the pressure with only some valiant defence preventing Adrian Lam’s men going back in front.

Rovers continued to be their own worst enemy, an awful spill by Ethan Ryan stretching his side through a torrid set, before a Mikey Lewis spill in his own 30 on 65 proved an error too far.

Leigh finally converted their opportunity when O’Brien arrowed his pass to send Briscoe diving over in the corner, and Reynolds’ conversion from the touchline sent Leigh within 10 minutes of history.

Parcell served up one last twist in the dying seconds, with Schneider sending the game into the extra period, but there was to be no great escape act again as Lam ensured that Wembley would turn an improbable shade of leopardskin.

Zak Hardaker will strain every sinew to win the Betfred Challenge Cup this weekend for Adrian Lam after thriving under the care and attention of the Leigh head coach.

The Leopards defied pre-season predictions that they would struggle on their Super League comeback and, with just half a dozen matches of the regular campaign left, Lam’s side are currently joint second.

Leigh could cap a remarkable return to the big time by beating Hull KR at Wembley on Saturday and Hardaker has attributed the club being the breakout story of the year to former Wigan boss Lam.

Hardaker, who worked under the Papua New Guinean at the Warriors, has had a string of disciplinary issues throughout his career but believes he has matured under Lam at Leigh.

“I’ve just settled,” he told the PA news agency. “When I signed at Leigh, the big factor was Lammy wanting me, wanting to settle me down and get the old head switched on.

“I think he knows me better than me, to be fair. He just makes sure that I’m happy, not that I want that much. He makes sure everyone’s home life is pretty good and wants that to be in order first.

“As a coach, if everyone’s happy outside of rugby then the on-the-field stuff takes care of itself. He makes sure I’m alright and it’s lovely that he’s so caring and looks out for me like that.

“I try to repay him by training hard and playing well for him on the pitch. If I can do that on Saturday and get him a win, it would be pretty special.”

Leigh won 28 of their 29 fixtures in last year’s Championship, including brushing aside Batley in the Million Pound Game, but their three past promotions to the top table ended with immediate relegation.

They bolstered their ranks by bringing in players with proven Super League pedigree, with Hardaker joined by former Leeds team-mate Tom Briscoe and experienced forwards Oliver Holmes and Jack Hughes.

“We knew we had a chance to do something,” Hardaker said. “Bringing in many people from different clubs and trying to get them to gel so quickly might have been the biggest issue but everyone’s so close.

“It’s weird in a way because friendships and bonds sometimes take a couple of years and you get that bond over a long period of time, but we’ve got it in a short period of time.

“We enjoy coming to training, we all have a laugh and a joke but when it’s time to get serious, we train hard. Every game’s been great. Even when we’ve lost, we’ve had big learning curves.”

Hardaker bagged a try as Leigh toppled St Helens – the winners of the past four Grand Finals who triumphed in the World Club Challenge earlier this year – last month to reach the Wembley showpiece.

Leigh’s last visit to the famous stadium was 52 years ago while this latest trip will just be their second overall, so the magnitude of the occasion is not lost on Hardaker.

He said: “We’ve seen pictures from then – what they did and the parade they had and all the fans in the street. It gives you that buzz of what it means and we’re going to try our hardest to recreate that.”

Hardaker has only had to wait eight years for another crack at cup-final glory. Back then, his Leeds side demolished Hull KR 50-0 and he ended the season as the Super League’s Man of Steel.

But in that same year, he was arrested for assault while in 2018 he was sacked by Castleford for failing a drugs test for cocaine before serving a driving ban shortly after being signed by Wigan.

Last year, he was released by the Warriors just days after coach Matt Peet said Hardaker had “dipped below the standards” expected of a Wigan player, but the 31-year-old has redeemed himself at Leigh.

“Winning the cup this weekend would mean everything,” he added. “It would definitely be up there with one of the best achievements I’ve got so far.”

Leigh captain John Asiata insists he always believed his side could do “something special” as they prepare for their Challenge Cup semi-final against St Helens.

The loose forward has been part of the team which have shocked Super League this season, winning 12 of their last 13 games in all competitions and setting up the chance to reach their first Challenge Cup final since 1971.

The former NRL star, who played for North Queensland Cowboys and Brisbane Broncos, brings a wealth of experience to the Leopards, having won the NRL grand final in 2015 and the 2016 World Club Challenge.

Now, the Australian has a different task at hand as he aims to continue Leigh’s stunning run with a Wembley appearance at stake, and he always believed his side could do the unthinkable.

Asiata told the PA news agency: “I said it at the beginning of the year that I trust this group and we are going to do something special this year.

“We are doing that at the moment and now we have to just keep going. Coming here, I did not understand why I was coming here but it was a door that God opened for me and since I’ve been here it’s been nothing but great things so I’m very happy.

“This year is all about making history and this is another opportunity to do that.”

Asiata has been one of Super League’s standout performers this season, leading the way for the most carries with 441, but he has also received help from a number of other key players such as Tom Briscoe and top try-scorer Josh Charnley.

The skipper hailed the team effort which has seen Leigh climb to second in the league and helped them recently come from 12 points down to beat Salford away 24-22 for the first time since 1981.

He continued: “As a group we set some goals in the beginning of the year but we have created a bunch that believe in each other’s ability to do the job.

“No matter where you are on the field, no matter how tired you can be, there is going to be someone else just as tired as you and we’ve built a very solid foundation for the new guys to jump on board.

“It’s just been awesome to see the boys achieve what they have done so far and we have a coach that is leading the way and helping us do that.”

Leopards earned a 20-12 victory over Saints in their meeting earlier in the season and sit two places above their semi-final opponents in the league.

Despite their superiority this season, Asiata insists Leigh have no mental advantage over St Helens and believes Saints are still the favourites heading into the game at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

He said: “It’s a whole different ball game when it comes to semi-final footy. It’s going to be a whole different Saints team that we are playing.

“They have been there and done that and are world champions for a reason but I am excited for the challenge because if you want to be the best you have to beat the best.

“I think Saints will be favourites which I don’t mind being the underdogs. If you look at the beginning of the year, nobody gave us a chance to do anything and that’s the good thing about our game.”