Leigh meet Bradford in bulls vs leopards on Sunday afternoon for only the third time ever in Super League, and it is the first meeting with the Bulls under the Leopards name. The fixture also brings back three players from Leigh’s 2022 side who are now on Bradford’s books.
Odsal’s 56-6 reminder
The last meeting came at Odsal on July 3, 2022, when Leigh won 56-6 and ran in ten tries in West Yorkshire. Adrian Lam’s side were on their way to the Championship treble that season, adding the 1895 Cup, the League Leaders’ Shield and the Grand Final to a year that already marked them out as a club on the rise.
That scoreline still drives the edge of this game. Leigh were not just winning then; they were dismantling Bradford in a match that now reads like a snapshot of a very different moment for both clubs.
Bradford’s Leigh links
Three of the Leigh 17 from that afternoon are now with Bradford. Aekins spent one season with Leigh in 2022 before joining Featherstone Rovers and later moving to the Bulls for their return to Super League this term.
Mellor also makes the reunion sharper. Leigh’s co-captain in 2022 left at the end of the following campaign after winning the Challenge Cup, then linked back up with Kurt Haggerty ahead of 2026 after Haggerty became Bradford’s head coach. Chamberlain is the third link, and he is currently on a season-long loan at Bradford from Hull FC after remaining with Leigh until midway through 2024.
Former Leigh names
The wider list from that Leigh side shows how many familiar faces this game carries. Ferguson scored 21 tries in 17 appearances for Leigh in 2022 and added one goal, while Macdonald scored 27 tries in as many matches in his sole season there and has now reached 89 appearances across all competitions in the British game.
Inu finished his playing career at the end of the 2022 campaign after scoring 28 points at Odsal through a hat-trick of tries and eight goals, then moved into coaching with Salford Red Devils and later spent a few weeks as head coach of North Wales Crusaders earlier this year. Reynolds played just shy of 250 career games, 148 of them across three separate stints at Leigh, before leaving at the end of 2023 as a Challenge Cup winner and later turning out for Featherstone, Hull KR, Hull FC and Batley.
Sidlow departed Leigh for Salford at the end of 2023, later played for Oldham and Swinton, retired at the start of this year and then became an Assistant Scholarship Coach at St Helens. Smith was among Leigh’s try-scorers in the Odsal win during a season-long loan, signed permanently ahead of 2023 and later saw his top-flight opportunities dry up.
The unusual part of Sunday is not just the rarity of the fixture. Leigh and Bradford have met only twice in Super League before, and this third meeting arrives with Bradford carrying three players who once helped Leigh beat them 56-6 at Odsal.
