OWNER Derek Beaumont has issued a rallying call to Leigh fans with rugby league shut down until at least April 3 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

And the Centurions boss is confident the Championship club can overcome the sport’s worrying problems to challenge for Super League.

Leigh’s home game with Oldham on Saturday and away to Featherstone on Sunday, March 29 have been postponed after RL chiefs suspended the season on Government advice.

However, John Duffy’s squad, still smarting from a dramatic last second 22-19 Challenge Cup defeat at Hull KR last Sunday will continue to train for any future resumption of the sport.

Mr Beaumont said: “The thing at the forefront of everybody’s thoughts is the financial position of the clubs.

“Everybody knows rugby league is not an affluent sport and depends massively on its stakeholders and in some cases, benefactors.

“The key stakeholders are without doubt the fans and its sponsors.

“That brings a number of concerns with not playing games the biggest being the reduction in revenue.

“There is obviously a nervousness on finances. The biggest threat to any club would be if people wanted to start reclaiming their season tickets.

“Ultimately, they’d be entitled to do but ultimately they’d be bringing down the thing that they want to support.

“The feedback I’ve had is that fans are not looking to do that which is very pleasing and I hope that continues.”

Leigh’s next scheduled fixture is Good Friday home clash against Widnes Vikings on April 10.

“We want to keep our players mentally healthy as well as physically healthy,” added Beaumont.

“Everyone needs to be behind this club to make sure they see it come out at the other side in a strong position ready to resume playing fixtures when we are able to.”

“We are different to some other clubs because many of our players are full-time so we can’t look to reduce what they earn.

“There is a commitment and funds though already in place so they need to know they’re in a safe place.

“At this moment we have a plan working towards April 3 and also a plan if there was inactivity for six weeks.

While April 3 is the next time we review it, it’s probably unlikely in my opinion that we will be back playing as quickly as that.

“But we can only work with what we know and that’s what we will do.”