Leigh Leopards vs London Broncos Predictions: Lam should stand out in big Leigh win

Leigh Leopards seek back-to-back home wins and will be confident of doing so when Adrian Lam’s side welcome rock-bottom London Broncos to the Leigh Sports Village on Friday (kick-off 20:05 BST, Sky Showcase)

The Leopards won a fiery clash with Huddersfield by just four points last week but will be well-backed for a more convincing victory here. My Leigh Leopards vs London Broncos predictions won't hold too many surprises.

Leigh Leopards vs London Broncos Odds

The Leopards are naturally huge favourites, being priced at a prohibitive 1/80 to win in 80 minutes, with the Broncos offered at 14/1. It's 28/1 for the draw, while the featured 2-way handicap sees Leigh on offer at 10/11 to overhaul a start of 28.5 points for the visitors. London are 5/6 in that field.

Team News

Leigh’s top tryscorer Josh Charnley is back after a rib cartilage issue ruled him out of contention for the win over Huddersfield and allowed a try-scoring debut instead for Darnell McIntosh.

Star hooker Edwin Ipape, though, is out as he serves a one-match ban for a Grade B charge of 'dangerous contact'. Elsewhere, the Leopards have allowed Ed Chamberlain to leave the club for a loan move to Hull FC, where he will remain for the rest of the season.

Rugby League Odds

London travel to Leigh with a similar squad to last week as boss Mike Eccles makes just the one change.

Alex Walker drops out of the initial 21 and is replaced by Hakim Miloudi. Half-back James Meadows is named in the squad despite looking to have picked up an injury last week in the 34-20 home defeat by Castleford Tigers.

Handicap 3-way Alternative 1: London +24 @ 7/5

Leigh came through a tough contest against Huddersfield as we predicted last week, although a couple of late lapses meant they didn’t quite hit the handicap. With the Giants down to 11 players for part of that game it was the one that got away in terms of a victory margin, which really should have seen Leigh give us a return on the -12 handicap.

That said, it was just the kind of win we expected and there will be more of the same this weekend. As stated last week, this Leopards side is far better than both its recent results and lowly league position suggest, and they will win this one with a bit of room as they look to close the gap on the teams above them – there is currently a nine-point deficit to the top six and so a play-off place seems pretty unlikely.

Adrian Lam’s men will miss hooker Ipape but they will still have far too much for a London side who have won only once all season.

The markets to look at in London games seem therefore to be either how close London can keep it, or margin of victory betting. I think Leigh will win this one by between 20-30 points and am going to go with the handicap and a 24-point start for the Broncos which could prove slightly optimistic. The odds imply a 41.7% probability of this one coming off.

Lachlan Lam anytime tryscorer @ 7/4

It should be take your pick from the Leigh squad to run in a try against the weakest defence in the Betfred Super League.

There is no real value out wide so I am looking at the half-backs in this fixture. Both Matt Moylan and Lachlan Lam are game-breaking players and are available at 7/4 to score anytime.

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