2004 Season Reports: Challenge Cup: LEIGH 14 HULL 21

LEIGH CENTURIONS 14

HULL FC 21
Dave Parkinson at The Coliseum

On the evidence of this game, romance has returned to Challenge Cup football as National League One Leigh Centurions pushed Super League play-off chasers Hull all the way in an edge-of-your-seat thriller at the Coliseum.

Hull lost possession on the second tackle of the game before falling foul of referee Ganson who awarded no less than 32 penalties throughout. Neil Turley converted and the Leigh fans went wild two minutes later when a long kick from John Duffy had Colin Best in all kinds of trouble and Tommy Martyn poached another try for his career tally, kicking forward before diving in at the corner.

Hull’s nightmare start continued when they were found guilty of holding down in the tackle and Turley made it 8-0 to the Centurions after just 7 minutes. Hull’s best chance of the opening quarter came in the 12th minute when Ewan Dowes supported an incisive Richard Horne break but he lost the ball close to the line.

Leigh continued their first quarter dominance as Hull were penalised and Turley kicked the goal for a 10-0 Centurion lead after 19 minutes.

Hull finally grabbed a foothold after 24 minutes when substitute Kirk Yeaman scored from a short pass by Chris Chester. Paul Cooke couldn’t convert but the arrival of Gareth Carvell added impetus to a flat looking pack in which only Paul King had previously shown real fight against a determined defence.

With Paul Rowley in fine form, Leigh surged forward and Oliver Wilkes broke the line only to be hauled down. From the next play, the ball came out to the left but Danny Halliwell couldn’t take Martyn’s bullet pass. Hull’s 33rd minute reply was clinical as Carvell supported Horne’s break in centre field to touchdown under the posts.

The Centurions discipline came into question during the early stages of the new half with Andrew Isherwood being placed on report then Rowley being sinbinned for interference. The visitors made the extra man count with a flowing move involving Horne, Cooke and Richie Barnett that saw Best score at the corner. With Swain running more from dummy half and Carvell and King making metres upfield Leigh somehow found another gear to keep pace and a smart kick from Duffy again had the visitors under pressure but Maden couldn’t take the resulting drop out.

Relieved Hull set about their task with renewed enthusiasm and Briscoe scored just before the hour, stretching over despite the attentions of three defenders after King’s superb step and break past Wilkes. Cooke converted and the visitors led 20-10.

Just as Hull started to take control, Briscoe was sin-binned for backchatting following a kick to the in-goal from Cooke. Leigh didn’t need an invite and roared back into the game when Knott forced his way over from dummy half after Halliwell had been stopped short. Turley couldn’t convert but there were more anxious moments for the travelling fans when Paul McNicholas was dismissed for a high tackle on Heath Cruckshank.

The Centurions continued to press only for Turley’s flat pass to Dave McConnell be adjudged forward after the Scottish international touched down. From the resulting possession, Hull built steadily and Peter Lupton dropped a goal to put the game beyond the Centurions.

Hull Director of Rugby Shaun McRae admitted that he was less than happy with what he had seen from his side “There were very few players who came out of that game who can hold their heads high. I thought Leigh put us under a bit of pressure and we didn’t handle that pressure very well. It wasn’t good, it wasn’t pretty. The positive is we won the game and are in round five but there’s a hell of a lot to work on there.”

“I thought Leigh played it really hard and they’ve showed today why they are going to be a force in the National League and why they are favourites to come up to Super League.”

Leigh coach Darren Abram praised the efforts of his team “I thought for a long period of time that we were the better team. It wasn’t to be, I’m proud of all my lads and it shows what a top team we are.”

“We trained all week at looking at their weaknesses and we put that into fruition today. It’s a credit to the lads they stuck to the task and were unlucky not to get the win.”


GAMEBREAKER: Peter Lupton’s 71st minute drop-goal just gave Hull that vital seven point cushion that Leigh couldn’t bridge.

GAMESTAR: Simon Knox – despite being the smallest of the six props on the field he worked tirelessly and although it’s a well used cliché, didn’t deserve to be on the losing side.

CENTURIONS
1 Neil Turley
2 Steve Maden
3 Dan Potter
4 Danny Halliwell
5 Damian Munro
6 John Duffy
7 Tommy Martyn
8 Simon Knox
9 Paul Rowley
10 Heath Cruckshank
11 Dave Larder
12 Oliver Wilkes
13 Ian Knott
Subs (all used)
14 Dave Alstead
15 Dave McConnell
16 Andrew Isherwood
17 Paul Norman

Tries: Martyn (2), Knott (64)
Goals: Turley 3/5
Sinbinned – Rowley (42) interference.

HULL FC
32 Shaun Briscoe
2 Colin Best
3 Richie Barnett
19 Alex Wilkinson
5 Gareth Raynor
16 Paul Cooke
6 Richard Horne
10 Paul King
9 Richard Swain
18 Ewan Dowes
15 Shayne McMenemy
23 Paul McNicholas
17 Chris Chester
Subs (all used)
20 Garreth Carvell
14 Kirk Yeaman
25 Peter Lupton
30 Richard Whiting

Tries: Yeaman (24), Carvell (33), Best (45), Briscoe (59)
Goals: Cooke 2/4
Sinbinned – Briscoe (63) talking back to the match official
Sent-off – McNicholas (68) suspected high tackle.


Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Leigh: Simon Knox
Hull: Garreth Carvell


Penalty count: 17-15
Half-time: 10-10
Referee: Steve Ganson (St Helens)
Attendance: 3,324
Scoring sequence: 2-0,6-0,8-0,10-0,10-4,10-10 (HT) 10-14, 10-20, 14-20, 14-21