Iconic boxing announcer Michael Buffer called Super League’s opening night – but Leigh’s Gareth O’Brien delivered a knock-out punch on champions Wigan.

Remarkably, for the first time in Super League’s 30 year history [and since 1993 in the British game] a match ended scoreless after 80 minutes.

But cool-headed stand-off O’Brien stepped up to score a golden point winner with a dramatic drop goal in front of a record opening Super League attendance of 21,748.

Wigan, quadruple winners last season, had been reduced to 12 men for the second time when centre Adam Keighran was yellow carded for a 79th minute swinging arm on Lachlam Lam.

Leigh hadn’t won at Wigan since 1983. Wigan take their home game with Warrington to Las Vegas in just over a fortnight’s time.

To continue the build-up for their Sin City adventure, Sky Sports flew in the famous Buffer to welcome the teams onto the field. With his famous ‘Let’s get ready to rumble’ call, he set the tone perfectly for the ‘Battle of the Borough.’

And the two sides duly went about bashing each other in a ferocious contest. Leigh had been hammered 38-0 at The Brick Community Stadium in last year’s Super League semi-final.

But boss Adrian Lam has made sweeping changes for 2025 and they were unrecognisable here. Leopards had five new signings making their Super League debut and they all impressed.

Ex-Kiwi loose forward Isaac Liu led from the front, former Newcastle Knights full-back David Armstrog showed signs he could light up the competition while fellow NRL arrivals Tesi Niu, Ethan O’Neill and Alec Tuitavake also had their moments.

Admittedly, the visitors looked like getting over-run initially with the elusive Jai Field and Bevan French quickly into their stride evading defenders.

But Lam’s side held firm, Umyla Hanley producing a try-saving tackle on England centre Jake Wardle and O’Neill doing likewise on Tyler Dupree.

Armstrong made a half-break but, crucially, took the wrong option in a game of few clear-cut chances. Super League’s first-ever Captain’s Challenge – introduced this year from the NRL – came in the 41st minute.

But Wigan skipper Liam Farrell didn’t choose wisely. He got it wrong when arguing Keighran hadn’t performed a ball steal. And to make matters worse, Farrell was sin-binned in the 54th minute.

He felt he had been impeded when chasing French’s grubber and kicked the ball away in frustration, also preventing Leigh taking a quick 20m restart.

Still, moments later, 12-man Wigan thought they’d finally broken the deadlock when Field skipped through the middle.

But it was ruled out by the video referee after replays showed Liam Marshall had ripped the ball from Edwin Ipape in a two-man tackle.

Leigh couldn’t capitalise with the man advantage and Lam also saw his own Captain’s Challenge fail in the 71st minute.