The Leigh Leopards have broken a 42-year Super League drought, defeating the Wigan Warriors 1-0 in a thrilling golden point finish in the league’s season opener.
After 80 scoreless minutes, the match was sent to golden point, before a field foal from Gareth O’Brien secured the Leopards first victory over the Warriors in Wigan since 1983, and delivered the Super League with its first 1-0 scoreline since 1994.
O’Brien secured victory for his team in the second minute of golden point when Wigan were a man down after centre Adam Keighran was sent to the bin for a dangerous tackle on halfback Lachlan Lam.
The Leopards had a string of former NRL players in their match-winning team on Friday morning (Sydney time), including Lam, along with back-to-back premiership-winning Rooster Isaac Liu and former Broncos and Dolphins player Tesi Niu.
For Leigh head coach Adrian Lam, the win was “surreal”.
“One thing I wanted to see from the group was to see that they were connected together and that they would be resilient – and I got that in abundance,” he said.
“I’m really happy. If Wigan had won 1-0, I would have been as happy as I am now because it’s going to take some time to develop this group and I’m looking forward to that journey.”
You’d have to go even further to find a similar scoreline in the NRL.
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