BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Leigh coach Adrian Lam reflected on the special moment when his son Lachlan replicated his own feat in the 2002 Challenge Cup final with a winning drop goal in the Leopards’ 17-16 victory.
Lam junior nailed a field goal in golden point to clinch the result over Hull KR at Wembley.
“I don’t want to make it about Lachlan but it was a special moment,” he said.
“I’ve thought this week how lucky I am to have him playing here for my team and playing well. It was just a really weird moment when he went to take the field goal and the ball was thrown back to him, and I thought, he’s going to win us the game here.
“I’ve coached him since he was six so what went through my mind was knowing we’d been in the opposing position a number of times and been heartbroken, so that was a bit of serendipity.”
Leigh were playing in the Championship last year but have shocked many with their rapid rise this season.
“It’s incredible to talk about how this has happened,” Lam said.
“I’ve just been watching Batley come in and I thought that was us last year, coming in to prepare for the Sundecks final. How that’s gone around in the last 12 months it’s an incredible story for rugby league really to come up and even be here.
“We’ve just built momentum every week we’ve gone along and the belief was really high.
“In the last 18 months, we’ve won everything in front of us and that’s not from being arrogant, it’s just hard work.
We’ve had 15 new players come in this year and this is a magic moment for the club, but we feel there are good times ahead for us as well.”
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