Leigh seeking reinforcements

Super League's bottom club, Leigh, hope to bring at least two new players to aid what is already looking an uphill fight against relegation but are adamant they are not about to sack their coach, Darren Abram.

Super League's bottom club, Leigh, hope to bring at least two new players to aid what is already looking an uphill fight against relegation but are adamant they are not about to sack their coach, Darren Abram.

The newly promoted club have lost their first three games, prompting rumours that Abram could lose his job, but the club's chief executive, Derek Beaumont, insisted yesterday that this was not the case.

"Darren's position is not being assessed," Beaumont said. "We've assessed that we've not given him the right tools to do the job. We're going to strengthen the team fairly quickly and we hope to have some movement by the weekend."

With their overseas quota full, Leigh's room for manoeuvre is limited. "We will do whatever is necessary to strengthen and we have left a bit of room in our budget," Beaumont said. "We're hoping to bring in some new blood, but a few guys here need to work harder. We have to be ruthless; anybody who isn't up to it will be replaced by someone who is."

One player Leigh could be interested in is the prop Mitchell Stringer, who has been released by London Broncos.

St Helens have confirmed that Sean Long and Paul Sculthorpe will both miss tomorrow's game at Warrington.

Blackpool Panthers are sending a delegation to France this weekend to watch their Challenge Cup opponents, Toulouse, in the French Cup quarter-finals.