LEIGH CENTURIONS 24 WIDNES VIKINGS 10
Dave Parkinson at The Coliseum.
Tony Benson began his Leigh reign with victory in the "Kegwatch Challenge" following a holiday humdinger against Widnes Vikings at the Coliseum.
"Really, all the game was for, was to see whether the players could do what they've trained for over the last eight weeks under the pressure of a game - Yes they can." said Benson.
Leigh used the opportunity to blood 13 of their close season recruits. One of those was two-try Tommy Grundy who Benson described as "an exceptional athlete" before praising the rest of the team.
"I felt all players put the effort in and your halves always look good when they are going forward. We can do a lot better than that, but they went pretty well."
In contrast, Widnes named a much changed line-up from the one that defeated Warrington on Boxing Day, giving Steve McCormack an opportunity to see the rest of his squad in action.
The first few minutes were scrappy before a moment of Julian O'Neill magic unlocked the Vikings defence. Carl Forber slipped through, passed for Gary Sykes who fed Grundy for the first try after 8 minutes.
Five minutes later the otherwise impressive Gavin Dodd spilled O'Neill’s spiralling punt, Tere Glassie followed up and quick hands from Danny Speakman was well finished at the corner by Lee Greenwood for a 10-0 lead.
Widnes worked themselves up the field with strong runs from Ryan Tandy, Aaron Summers and Bruce Johnson but Gary Hulse saw an attacking kick defused by Greenwood. Then on his own line Dodd was at his best when the Centurions Richard Moore cut loose inside the visitors 20.
The end-to-end nature continued when trialist Damian Reid ran in hard only for the ball to go to ground, then Adam Sidlow combined with Mick Nanyn over 40 metres.
Leigh kept the scoreboard ticking with an O'Neill penalty on 26 minutes and that was how it remained until the break despite the efforts of James Coyle and Dodd to prise open the home defence.
The second half started with the Vikings kicking well and they grabbed their first try after 47 minutes when rugby union recruit Lucas Onyango swooped on Adam Bibey's loose pass to finish well in the corner.
Nanyn and Moore had a short dust-up in midfield that saw both players warned by referee Karl Kirkpatrick and the game seemed to settle down again with Scott Grix and Greenwood breaking before Coyle was put into touch at the corner flag.
Leigh swept downfield only for Moore to knock-on. In frustration the former Bradford player weighed in with a heavy tackle and then inexplicably appeared to head butt Hulse. Unsurprisingly Kirkpatrick red-carded the prop.
"He'll be very upset with himself." Benson said of the incident "He's a player that wants to do well and was possibly trying too hard. Sometimes that can go in the wrong direction - not that I'm condoning it."
"I thought discipline wise we were excellent today." Said McCormack, "especially considering some of the things that were going on but that's for Tony Benson to have a look at, not me."
By that stage Widnes were chasing the game and could only admire O'Neills kicking when the former Australian international grubbered to the corner with pin-pint accuracy for Grundy to bring up his second try. The conversion from O'Neill made it 18-4. Although the Vikings rallied through a 75th minute score by Paul Crook, Leigh made their superiority count in the final minute when Grix touched down Aaron Heremaia's kick forward from a scrum and converted for a 14-point Leigh victory.
"It was a difficult game" said McCormack. "I think both sides and the conditions made it a tough game. we're a bit disappointed to lose I thought we worked hard but execution-wise we struggled a bit. We've got a lot of young players who I thought went really well, Dayne Donahue and Adam Bowman when he came on was superb and Paul Crook worked hard. We don't know how good these younger players are until we play them and that was the aim of today.”
GAMEBREAKER: O’Neill’s grubber kick for Grundy;s second try on 70 minutes.
GAMESTAR: O’Neill, Rob Roberts and Gavin Dodd were all contenders but Tommy Grundy put himself forward in attack and defence regularly and was rewarded with two tries.
MATCH FACTS:
LEIGH:
1. Scott Grix
2. Misili Manu
3. Gareth Pemberton
4. Danny Speakman
5. Lee Greenwood
6. Julian O'Neil (C)
7. Carl Forber
8. Matty Bottom
9. Gary Sykes
10. Richard Moore
11. Tommy Grundy
12. Tere Glassie
13. Rob Roberts
SUBS (All Used)
14. Paul Rowley
15. Jay Duffy
16. Chris Hill
17. Adam Bibey
No Number. Aaron Heremaia
No Number. John Cookson
No Number. Damien Munro
Tries: Grundy (8, 70), Greenwood (13), Grix (80)
Goals: O'Neill 3/4, Grix 1/1.
Sinbinned: -
Sent Off: Richard Moore (64 Headbutting)
WIDNES
1. Gavin Dodd
2. Lucas Onyango
3. Darren Woods
4. Damien Reid
5. Adam Bowman
6. James Coyle
7. Gary Hulse (C)
8. Bruce Johnson
9. Paul Crook
10. Ryan Tandy
11. Paul Alcock
12. Dayne Donoghue
13. Mick Nanyn
SUBS (All Used)
14. Tim Holmes
15. Aaron Summers
16. Paul O'Connor
17. Danny Heaton
18. Ryan Millington
19. Adam Sidlow
20. Scott Yates
Tries: Onyango (47), Crook (75)
Goals: Nanyn 1/2.
Scoring Sequence:
6-0; 10-0; 12-0; 12-4; 18-4; 18-10; 24-10
Referee: Karl Kirkpatrick (Warrington)
Penalites: 8-14
GLDO: 2-3
Halftime: 12-0
Attendance: 2,748
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match:
Leigh: Tommy Grundy; Widnes: Gavin Dodd.
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