Matt Davis makes Adrian Lam plea ahead of crucial Leigh Leopards decision

Leigh Leopards forward Matt Davis has urged Adrian Lam to stay on as Leopards boss. They host Salford this Friday night already knowing Challenge Cup-winning captain John Asiata will join Hull in 2025.

Ex-England centre Zak Hardaker is also expected to make the same move to the Airlie Birds, and former Leeds winger Tom Briscoe switched across last month. But Hull have sounded out Lam, who is out of contract at the end of the year, as well about potentially filling their head coach vacancy.

Ex-Warrington forward Davis, 27, said: “I 100 percent want Lammy to stay. He’s a great coach. Personally, I’ve learned a lot from him since joining from Warrington. He’s a great bloke and a great coach.

“I don’t think there’s many better out there. He’s got a real balance between being a great coach and also being able to have a good laugh and be a good mate you can speak to about anything. I wouldn’t want him to go over that way and follow John.

“It’s come out that Zak is going over there as well so [Hull director of rugby] Richie Myler is doing a fair job trying to get some players from the Leopards.”

Salford, meanwhile, are joint-top while Leigh are still looking to properly get going this term. It looked like they’d turned a corner with a stunning 30-2 destruction of high-fliers Catalans - only their second league victory of the season - but then let a big lead slip to draw 28-28 at home with lowly Castleford on Saturday.

Davis added: “It’s almost a derby with Salford. They’re not far away and we always have really good games, often with quite a few tries. They beat us two out of three times last year and earlier this season [32-22]. They are a great team with a lot of good players, really elusive and players who shift it a lot. It’s going to be a tough game.

“We’re not necessarily picking up wins but I do think we’re not far off that finished article as a team. There’s been glimpses. Catalans was our best and we’ve been unlucky to lose some. But to get our season fully started we need that win. We’re ten games in now and it’s frustrating. But we’ll be going all guns blazing.

“We’ve got some time off next week so it’s a big incentive to go and beat Salford tomorrow to go into that two weeks with a win as otherwise we’ll be dwelling on it for a couple of weeks.”

Davis is out of contract at the end of the season but expects to sign a new Leigh deal for 2025 - “nothing’s going to change for me” - and is pleased with how his own form is going.

He said: “I am. I think I’m one of those players that does a lot of stuff behind the scenes: a lot of defensive work and things like that. I’ve been playing a bit of nine with Edwin [Ipape] being out. He was back last week and was class. That was massive for us.

“A lot came from Edwin last season. He was probably our best player last year and he leads our attack and defence and he’d been out since the first game of the year.

“It’s getting used to playing off different players. But I’ve been doing a bit of nine and enjoyed it and had to learn on the run as best I could. But I’m back at loose now.”