Coaches of the Leigh Leopards and Wigan Warriors commend winger Umyla Hanley, charting her ascent.

Umyla Hanley had to wait patiently for his time at Leigh Leopards, but the youthful talent seized the moment.

The 22-year-old moved from nearby Wigan Warriors to Leigh prior to the previous campaign. In2023, he made just two appearances for the Challenge Cup winners’ first squad. He also underwent a shoulder repair and played on loan for League 1’s Rochdale Hornets.
Coaches of the Leigh Leopards and Wigan Warriors commend winger Umyla Hanley, charting her ascent.

When winger Tom Briscoe sustained a long-term calf injury last month, Adrian Lam gave Hanley a shot in the starting lineup, and it’s easy to say he has made an impression in Super League.

The winger, who was born in Wigan, has eight tries in four games, including two hat-tricks against Salford Red Devils and Featherstone Rovers in the past two weeks.

But his ability to score tries has been amazing in more ways than one. In addition, he is averaging 179 meters and more than 18 carries per game.

“He’s also had 20 carries and he’s made over 220 metres (in some games), which are international sort of statistics,” Lam told Love Rugby League.

“We understand that he’s having a big crack and these are the parts of coaching you love most.. When you give a player an opportunity and they take it with open hands which is what Umyla has done.

“At that average he’ll be scoring 50 tries this year I hope! But we’ll wait and see.. Just keep in mind that Umyla is only young and is inexperienced in the sense of starting and there will be mistakes around his game because he has got to get those (amount of) matches racked up.

“But with that, the work ethic that he’s got – and his understanding of who we want to be as a club – his standards are exactly what we want to be and he’s doing a great job for us at the moment, so that’s a shining light.”

Leigh Leopards’ Umyla Hanley set to play against former club Wigan Warriors for the first time

On Thursday night, Hanley will play his previous team, Wigan, in what will be his first encounter with the Warriors since he left the team at the end of the 2022 campaign.

The former England Academy player spent five years with his local club before relocating across the borough to Leigh. He joined Wigan’s youth divisions at the age of 15.

“Sometimes it is timing, isn’t it? When the opportunity presents itself, there’s been times when Umyla has been out with injury as well so I think everyone would always be confident that when Umyla got a run, when he was fit and well, that he could take it so it’s not that it’s taken him any longer than expected, sometimes it’s just about the stars aligning about the players in front of you and his own fitness and form as well.”

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Hanley adds plenty of utility value to Leigh, being able to play wing, centre and full-back – but which does Lam see him playing in the long-term?

“I think it’s wing or centre,” Lam replied. “He missed a lot of last season with a shoulder reconstruction but after having that operation he worked really in the off-season, he came back bigger and stronger than he’s ever been.