Leigh 48 St Helens 10: Charnley signs new contract during game

VETERAN winger Josh Charnley signed a contract extension in the in-goal after scoring a try as Leigh ended St Helens’ season.

In one of the most audacious publicity stunts in rugby league history, a clipboard with a document marked “contract extension” and a marker pen was left on the railing at Leigh Sports Village.

When Charnley scored in the ninth minute, the 35-year-old signed the document and held it up to the Skyt cameras, who initially missed it – commentators say he was signing an autograph – before showing the stunt on replay.

The club then issued a media release in which the player was quoted as saying: “At the beginning of the year, I spoke to my family and said this might be my last.

“But coming into the year, I got my body right, so I put it on Derek (Beaumont, owner) and Lammy’s (coach Adrian Lam) toes and said I wanted to go round again.”

The 48-10 result ended a run of qualifying for play-offs that stretched back to the 1960s for St Helens.

Leigh led 24-10 at halftime. They had a battle on their hands for much of the first half but threw off the shackles around the hour mark.

Coach Adrian Lam was left in raptures when England squad member Umyla Hanley beat several tacklers for a great individual try – his second – to leave no doubt about the result.

Jacob Alick-Wiencke got his share of the spoils with 10 to go, Robbie Mulhern right on the bell.

LEIGH 48 (Hanley 2 Charnley Ipape Cook Armstrong Alick-Wiencke Mulhern tries Cook 8 goals) beat ST HELENS 10 (Sailor Douglas tries Sailor goal) at Leigh Sports Village. Crowd: 9589.

Teams:

LEIGH: David Armstrong; Innes Senior, Keenan Brand, Umyla Hanley, Josh Charnley; Adam Cook, Lachlan Lam; Joe Ofahengaue, Liam Horne, Robbie Mulhern, Jacob Alick-Wiencke, Isaac Liu. Res: Louis Brogan, Andrew Badrock, Matt Davis, Edwin Ipape.

SAINTS: Tristan Sailor; Jacob Douglas, Mark Percival, Jack Welsby (c), Deon Cross; Harrt Robertson, Jonny Lomax; David Klemmer, Tom Humphreys, Jacob Host, Billy Keeley, Shane Wright, Joe Shorrocks. Res: Cole Marsh, Chris Matagi, Matty Evans, Oscar Knox.

Referee: Chris Kendall.