2006 Season Reports: Play-offs: LEIGH 22 BATLEY 23

LEIGH CENTURIONS 22
BATLEY BULLDOGS 23
Dave Parkinson at The Coliseum

The National League One play-offs got underway at The Coliseum and Batley showed typical Bulldog spirit to chalk up a surprise, but deserved victory over Leigh Centurions.

Hero of the hour was former Centurions halfback Jay Duffy who was a prominent figure in midfield. He booted three goals from four attempts, two of which were from the touchline and grabbed the all important 76th minute drop goal that ultimately left the Centurions Super League dreams in tatters.

Speaking in the aftermath of the victory Batley coach Gary Thornton said "It was an absolutely fantastic effort. Every one of them has worked their socks off. I think we won that game with more desire than Leigh. To a man I thought we were superb. We knew we were always in the game and we were quite comfortable at half-time. I felt we gave some soft tries away and they didn't really test us too much. We were a little bit concerned when they scored first in the second half. I always thought, we always knew, and believed, that we could do it. They muscled in and did it for the full 80 minutes."

“I’m delighted for Jay. It’s his old club and he was rejected by Leigh. He has come to Batley and been superb. I’m really pleased for him. He certainly got Man-of-the-Match in my view.”

"This time last year we were in the wrong play-off." He continued, "we had to scrap for our lives to stay in National League One and I said at the time it would be nice this year to play in our own play-offs. Here we are and I think that we learned a lot from that occasion last year and it stood us in good stead."

“We’ve got nothing to lose and are just enjoying the ride. Hopefully it can continue.”

There was little doubt that Batley came into this game as underdogs and initially the form book seemed to be going to plan as Ricky Bibey, Dana Wilson and Chris Hill pushed upfield. Although those early sorties yielded little reward, Leigh did take the lead after 6 minutes with a superb try. Scott Grix returned a kick strongly before a one handed pass saw Lee Greenwood break through the Bulldogs midfield and the winger had enough pace and guile to shrug the Batley fullback off. Carl Forber missed with the conversion and knocked on from the restart.

This gave Batley position and they worked it well, twice going close before crisp passing to the right saw Ashley Lindsay score without a finger being laid on him.

Leigh replied quickly with Dana Wilson powering over for his 6th try of the season from some smart dummy half play by Paul Rowley and Forber was able to land the conversion.

Again Batley responded and a successful chargedown again gave them territorial advantage. John Gallagher, Duffy and Ollie Marns were all involved in an intricate try-scoring move that saw Lingard add another four points to his mammoth Bulldogs tally.

By this stage the game had descended into something of a niggling affair with the Bulldogs successfully slowing Leigh down, much to the annoyance of the home support. The Centurions had been drawn in by this point, unable to recapture their early dominance. At this stage the Centurions trailed 6-2 in the penalty stakes and they were becoming increasingly frustrated.

After 34 minutes strong Leigh tackling forced Bulldog substitute Anthony Henderson to lose 15 metres and the ball popped out in Batley’s favour. Duffy grubbered forward and a drop out ensued. The Bulldogs then saw a Gallagher try disallowed as Grix forced a knock-on with a crunching tackle.

Just before the half-time siren Robert Roberts used all his guile to evade two tackles and cross for his 3rd try of the season. Forber converted to hand his team a 16-10 advantage.

The opening ten minutes of the new half was all Leigh and another try looked on the cards after 44 minutes when Dean Gaskell slipped through in midfield. Rowley supported and drew the defence only for Gaskell to spill the return pass under pressure from Lingard. Two minutes later, Duffy recovered the situation for Batley when Aaron Heremaia kicked forward and the ball skimmed off the floor and into the crossbar.

Leigh extended their lead by two points after 49 minutes after Martin McLoughlin was one of two players put on report for a tackle that upended Bibey.

With the Centurions largely unable to take advantage of this early momentum, the Bulldogs replied in spectacular style with a 50-metre team try. McLoughlin instigated the move, driving strongly before popping the ball up for Duffy. He found Ian Marsh and Marns drew the defence for Jamie Stokes to grab his 11th try of the season and improve the angle for Duffy’s successful conversion.

Within five minutes Leigh extended their slender advantage back out to six points when Danny Halliwell’s intelligent grubber kick was touched down by Gaskell, but the Bulldogs still sensed an upset.

With Duffy and Gallagher providing plenty of energy to the attack, Batley poured forward. A 65th minute clash between Heremaia and Kris Lythe seemed to knock Leigh further off their game and uncharacteristic things began to happen as the Centurions moved away from the direct play that had served them well all season.

With nine minutes remaining Gallagher kicked for the in-goal area and Leigh were slow to turn as centre Chris Langley pounced for a try out wide. Duffy struck the touchline conversion to tie the game and the crowd contemplated the prospect of extra time.

Batley drove forward and following a melee that eventually saw McLoughlin kick ahead via a couple of ricochets, the otherwise steady Grix knocked on. Just two tackles after the scrum, Duffy found himself in a good position and coolly slotted over the drop goal. Leigh tried to regain composure after that but Halliwell twice saw the ball escape his grasp and the Bulldogs successfully played the clock out for Batley to prove that every dog does indeed have its day.

“Devastating” was Tony Benson’s succinct reaction “It’s a pretty sad day in my eyes. Possibly a few players got caught up on the day, on the atmosphere and emotion. We got drawn in. We knew it was going to happen, it’s something that we’d spoken about all week, but once the emotions are high it’s hard to get out of. Possibly those were very good tactics by Batley. I think that Batley turned up to play and played very well. They played a nice tight game and came away with it. Finals are funny things and teams don’t always respond how you want them too.”

GAMEBREAKER: Duffy’s 76th minute drop-goal – it edged Batley in front for the second time in the game and there was only one winner thereafter.

GAMESTAR: Jay Duffy was a source of energy for his side, and a major annoyance to the Centurions. He helped to lay on two tries whilst landing three goals and that all important one-pointer.

MATCHFACTS:

CENTURIONS
1 Scott Grix
2 Dean Gaskell
3 Adam Hughes
4 Danny Halliwell
5 Lee Greenwood
6 Carl Forber
7 Aaron Heremaia
8 Ricky Bibey
9 Paul Rowley
10 Dana Wilson
11 Paul Prescott
12 Chris Hill
13 Robert Roberts
SUBS:
14 Gary Sykes (Not Used)
15 Tommy Grundy
16 Bryn Hargreaves
17 Warren Stevens

Tries: Greenwood (6), Wilson (12), Roberts (40), Gaskell (58)
Goals: Forber 3/5
Sinbinned:
Dismissed:

BULLDOGS
1 Craig Lingard
2 Jamie Stokes
3 Chris Langley
4 Ollie Marns
5 Ashley Lindsay
6 John Gallagher
7 Jay Duffy
8 David Rourke
9 Kris Lythe
10 Martin McLoughlin
11 Sean Richardson
12 Tim Spears
13 Mark Toohey
SUBS: (All Used)
14 Luke Stenchion
15 Anthony Henderson
16 Luke Menzies
17 Ian Marsh

Tries: Lindsay (8), Lingard (19), Stokes (53), Langley (71).
Goals: Duffy 3/4 + 1DG
Sinbinned:
Dismissed:
On-report: Martin McLoughlin (49 - suspected dangerous throw)

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match:
Leigh: Chris Hill
Batley: Jay Duffy

Penalty Count: 6-7
GLDO: 1-2
Referee: Peter Taberner (Wigan)
Attendance: 1,815

Scoring Sequence:
4-0; 4-6; 10-6; 10-10; 16-10; 18-10; 18-16; 22-16; 22-22; 22-23.