New Beginnings
10 August 2021, Chris Chester was terminated as head coach of Wakefield after recording only four wins in the 2021 Super League season, only the Leigh Centurions were keeping Wakefield off the bottom spot. Chester left his home town club, a broken man after enduring five tortuous months of online abuse aimed at himself and impacting his whole family.
"It's a good opportunity to sit back, take stock and spend some time with my family," he admitted at the time. Family time, a summer holiday and a few rounds of golf were in order. In fact, Chezzy was on holiday when he spent 10 days deliberating an offer put forward by Leigh Centurions CEO Neil Jukes to become the Head of Rugby at the soon-to-be-relegated Leigh Centurions. The idea was to support the acting coach Kurt Haggerty, who was in his first management position after replacing John Duffy. Haggerty would leave at the end of the 2021 season joining Salford as assistant Manager leaving the new Head of Rugby at Leigh, without a manager and a small team of players from the relegation season.
Six weeks of recuperation was all that Chester managed with his family, and faced with an incredible challenge to put a team together in just a few months before the new season started. Chester pointed out that ideally he should have taken longer, but the opportunity came along. “I needed to step away, but it is easier said than done”.
Chezzy concedes that, “It was a good decision to jump onboard and it is great to see the improvement we have made over the last 2 years”. The role of Head of Rugby allowed Chris to stay in Rugby but he needed to get away from coaching. Chezzy quipped that it was the “Next best thing” and added “I thought this was a good project to get involved with, and with them being newly relegated from Super League. There was a blank canvas from which to work with, and a really healthy budget from which to work with, which would increase with time.”
“The priority was to get the right guy in to lead the team.” Chezzy was quick to point out that the most important signing he made was appointing Adrian Lam. Chezzy and Lammy had played together at Wigan Warriors in the 2001 season but had remained in contact ever since.
Lam was the head coach for three seasons 2019-21 and was Coach of the Year in 2020 despite narrowly missing out on winning the Grand Final when Welsby scored for St Helens after the hooter had sounded. In the 2021 season Lam was much maligned by Rugby League fans as playing a boring type of rugby, but in his defence, star signings Bevan French and Jai Field missed 12 weeks and five months of the season respectively. Any team would miss one of these players never mind both. In August 2021 Lam issued a statement saying he would leave Wigan at the end of the 2021 season. Lammy was all set for a return to Australia, when Chezzy planted the seeds that there was a position open at Leigh and there were exciting times to come, with a chance to create his own team, with a sizable playing budget and no interference from owner Derek Beaumont. Only Adrian Lam is entirely sure why he chose to take the job, but Chezzy admits a few drinks were consumed on hearing the news.
The next task was to create a squad capable of winning the Championship. Owner Derek Beaumont was relaxed enough to give a two year plan to return to Super League. Early pre-season saw Chezzy overseeing coaching sessions and hammering the phones to arrange more signings to build up the squad from six players to the 19 players that started the 2022 season. Chezzy talks about how the original members of the squad badgered him daily for news on new signings. “It was important not to rush and stay patient.” he said. He was happy that he had the nucleus of a decent side with Ben Reynolds and Joe Mellor at the half’s
Important building blocks included a dual registration with St Helens and a season-long loan for Aaron Smith and James McDonnell from Wigan, Chezzy having missed the May window when negotiations could start. This resulted with Chezzy struggling to fill the squad with British players of the requisite calibre, the majority had already been snapped up. Chezzy would scour the Southern Hemisphere to utilise the fact that the Championship does not have an overseas quota, unlike the Super League which limits to a maximum of seven non-federation trained players. For the start of the season, Chezzy signed Caleb Aekins, Nene Macdonald, Tom Amone, John Asiata, Ata Hingano, and Jy Hitchcox. Mark Ioane and Sam Stone had been retained from the previous season in Super League.
Chezzy confirmed the story that John Asiata had been due to sign for the York City Knights. Derek contacted John and discussed Charity Work for 10 minutes avoiding talking Rugby. In the end, John changed his mind and signed for the Centurions.
Chester recalls the game from round 2 against Featherstone. It was a potential banana skin for the newly relegated team, with a target on their backs. Chezzy described the pitch as a “Muddy ice rink, and the match should probably have been called off.” “I look back at that second game and Featherstone came out with some ridiculous comment after the game, when we got beat and put us in the bin. That got Derek’s back up.” Don't upset a millionaire with a petulant streak. The result of these comments would spur Chezzy to continue signing new players with Derek’s blessing.
Chezzy talks a lot about patience and getting the right people in the right positions. Time is spent doing background checks to ensure that the people involved are right for the club, “It is not just about the talent, it is about the person”. The buzzword in the game is DNA, but Chezzy is careful to enhance the culture of the club and not detract from it. Looking at the players and coaching staff there appears to be plenty of smiles. “Winning helps, you are always happy when you win.” Chezzy gives a lot of credit to Lammy for gelling a team so quickly from a small group into a functioning squad, with so many new players arriving.
The new recruits would continue to appear on a regular basis. Round 4 would see the introduction of Edwin Ipape at the away game at York. Chezzy stated that at around this time, he knew that the squad that had started the season wasn’t going to be one that finished the season.
Krisnan Inu was lured back to England after going into semi-retirement with the French team, FC Lézignan XIII in the Elite One Championship. He would cement a place on the left wing and provide a potent scoring threat with his goal-kicking and fearless wing play.
Chezzy explained that the most difficult signing was Kai O’Donnell, who did not meet visa requirements and that he had almost given up on the signing when the clearance finally came through. Round 8 would see Kai make his debut away at Widnes, days after stepping off a plane.
In round 10 Big Ben Nakubuwai, Fiji International would enter the fray, 6ft 4” and 17 Stone, he would epitomise Lammy’s preference for “Big bodies with leg speed.”
Round 12 would see Blake Ferguson, Australia International and ‘bad boy’ reputation make the most explosive debut at the LSV against Workington. Ferguson scored four tries and topped it off with a backflip. For his next game, he would help Leigh secure the 1895 AB Sundeck Cup.
Featherstone Rovers had gone undefeated in the Championship and held a two-point lead over Leigh after 11 rounds and went into the 1895 AB Sundeck Cup as favourites, of which their fans took great pleasure tormenting the Leigh Fans. Featherstone had invested heavily in a quality side full of experience. Many believed that they had pulled off a master stroke by signing the Australian spine players from Toulouse, Johnathon Ford and Mark Kheirallah. They believed that they had outbid Leigh for two highly sought-after game-changers. Derek Beaumont strongly denied that Leigh had been interested in the signings, stating that Leigh already had better players which acted as an insult to Featherstone and supporting his own players at the same time.
The 1895 AB Sundeck Cup was held as a curtain-raiser for the Challenge Cup. The match was played on Saturday 28th May at the magnificent Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. A tense affair ended Featherstone Rovers 16 Leigh Centurions 30 with much celebration in the Lancashire end. Chezzy believes that this was the pivotal point in the season, but also noted that the win away at Batley two weeks earlier had been a catalyst. Just like the Grand Old Duke of York, Lammy had marched his men up and down the hill at Mount Pleasant creating a 0-50 shutout.
