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.
The only time there has been a 1-0 in top Australian rugby league was when Jack Gibson’s Newtown Jets defeated St George 1-0 in round eight in 1973.
Wigan head coach Matt Peet told BBC Radio Manchester it was a history-making match.
“I hope it’s spoken about for years to come and credit to Leigh – they didn’t come here and fluke or nick a win, they earned a win and fair play to them,” Peet said.
“I’ve been involved in a lot of play-off games and finals over the years, and it had that sort of feel about it, where you’re just waiting for a mistake or a penalty. It was a great standard to start.”
