1999 Season Reports: March: ROCHDALE HORNETS 22 LEIGH CENTURIONS 40

Rochdale Hornets 22 Leigh Centurions 40
By Dave Parkinson.
Prolific try poacher David Ingram helped himself to a hat-trick but could realistically have scored five as the Centurions marched to an emphatic 8-try victory over disappointing Rochdale at Spotland.

The game started ominously for Hornets when Liku carved an opening in the defence and put Ingram clear only for referee Morris to cancel the score for a forward pass.

Moments later the same Liku-Ingram combination created an opening and club skipper Craig Dean, returning from injury crossed by the posts.

Ingram finally registered his first try after 8 minutes and Leigh were looking very lively at 10-0. Another possible Ingram try was then disallowed for a suspect double movement and Rochdale were able to hit back.

A couple of penalties saw Rochdale gain good field position. Leigh found this pressure too much, twice cracking as Knowles and then Burgess scored converted tries for a slender 12-10 Hornets advantage.

Leigh stormed back in the form of Andy Fairclough, swatting his way past two defenders from a scrum for a 28th minute try. A six minute purple patch at the start of the second half then put Rochdale to the sword as the Centurions slipped into another gear and fully capitalised with tries from Phil Kendrick, Ingram and Anthony Murray.

The latter was the try of the match as Dean and Keiron Purtill made the opening that sent a rampaging Street on a 30 metre run and Murray collected the inside pass to outpace the cover.

All shellshocked Rochdale could muster in reply was an unconverted try from substitute Hilton. Leigh continued to pile forward and Hadcroft was held up over the line.

A forward pass denied Ingram his 3rd on the hour but the centre made amends with a trademark jinking run 10 minutes later. Fairclough added Leigh's 8th and final try taking a short ball for his 5th of the season for Dean Purtill to add his 4th goal.

A last minute penalty try to Hornets made the score more respectable but coach Deryck Fox must be worried at his teams defence and thankful the score did not reach 50 or 60.