Who would have had Catalans Dragons v Leigh Leopards down as a top-three clash going into the season? Not many would, but these two teams came into Round 16 of the Betfred Super League campaign in first and third place respectively.
Can the wonderful Leopards run continue? Here is everything you need to know about Saturday's big fixture.
Catalans Dragons v Leigh Leopards
Where: Stade Gilbert Brutus, Perpignan.
When: 6pm (BST), 7pm (local)
TV: No UK screening
Catalans' last five: Won 38-4 v Hull KR (Rd 15), Won 46-22 v Wigan (Rd 14), Won 36-6 v Wakefield (Rd 13), Won 46-22 @ Catalans (Rd 12), Won 24-12 v St Helens (Rd 11)
Leigh's last five: Won 28-16 v Hull FC (Rd 15), Won 30-4 v Wakefield (Rd 14), Won 30-12 v Warrington (Rd 13), Won 30-4 @ Huddersfield (Rd 12), Won 30-6 v Castleford (Rd 11)
Betfred match winner odds (80 minutes): Catalans 1/5, Leigh 18/5, draw 22/1
First try scorer odds: Tom Johnstone (Catalans) 11/2, Tom Davies (Catalans) 15/2, Josh Charnley (Leigh) 9/1, Matt Ikuvalu (Catalans) 10/1, Arthur Mourgue (Catalans) 12/1
Milestones:
Tom Johnstone's next try will be his 100th in Super League, while Sam Tomkins is 10 points away from 1,500 in his senior career.
For Leigh, Joe Mellor needs two tries to bring up his career century.
Previous meetings:
Round 2, 2023: Catalans Dragons 14, Leigh Leopards 6
Round 22, 2022: Catalans Dragons 64, Leigh Centurions 0
Round 9, 2021: Leigh Centurions 30, Catalans Dragons 36
Million Pound Game, 2017: Leigh Centurions 10, Catalans Dragons 26
Qualifiers Round 3, 2017: Catalans Dragons 6, Leigh Centurions 30
Total Super League meetings: 5 (Catalans 5, Leigh 0, no draws)
The job being done by Steve McNamara at Catalans Dragons continues to go under the radar. With five wins on the trot in the league, Les Dracs came into the round as leaders once more, and with a Challenge Cup win plus a League Leaders' Shield since travelling to Leigh for a Million Pound Game in 2017, it's fair to say the former England head coach has built quite the legacy in Perpignan. Don't rule them out for more silverware in 2023.
The only team in better from than the Dragons at the moment is Leigh, who have now won nine in a row in all competitions since their defeat to Salford Red Devils at Easter. Adrian Lam has his side playing with consistent quality, and the regularity of their results in recent weeks speaks to the structured way they've gone about picking teams off. They'll head to Perpignan with no fear, having already run the Dragons close there this season in a Round 2 fixture which served notice to the rest of the division as to how tough to beat the Leopards might be.
Sportsman stat: Leigh have kept opponents down to a single-figure score five times in 2023, compared to three occasions in 75 attempts in their previous Super League campaigns.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject to Change
