2006 Season Reports: SWINTON 20 LEIGH 30

SWINTON LIONS 20
LEIGH CENTURIONS 30
Dave Parkinson reports from Park Lane, 26/02/2006.

Leigh made it three Northern Rail Cup wins from as many games with success over plucky Swinton Lions, however in a couple of respects this was the least convincing victory of the three as the hosts staged a late fightback to score 14 points in the last ten minutes.

“It’s certainly two points but I wouldn’t call it a good win for us.” Leigh boss Tony Benson said after the game.

"I was pretty disappointed in our defence at the end but saying that, I think the Lions really came back at us and gave it to us in attack. They did a really good job.”

Before the fightback, defensively at least, the Centurions were almost watertight conceding just one try to an interception.

The game got away to a laboured start on a bitterly cold afternoon and it wasn’t until four minutes in when the first real action of note happened. Leigh swept the ball out to the left for Adam Hughes to chip over but this only aggravated an injury and the Welsh international went off.

With Scott Grix bouncing out of tackles like a pinball and Dean Gaskell returning the ball with real venom from the ruck, Leigh looked set to capitalise, particularly when a run on the right from Tommy Grundy split the defence but Paul Rowley’s offload only found Swinton hands.

With a rising penalty count both sides struggled for control and Leigh finally registered points 18 minutes in when a looping pass from Carl Forber saw Gaskell crash past Marlon Billy in the corner. The halfback converted superbly from the touchline but the hosts roared back, forcing successive drop outs.

Like in their game with Widnes the Lions began to control field position but the Centurions defended manfully and Andy Crabtree was forced to hand over the ball after 28 minutes.

As Leigh looked to break out a mistake followed. Billy appeared to mishandle but the officials missed the fumble and the Centurions were forced to track back in order to stop the wingman scoring for Swinton.

Gradually the Centurions mounted a challenge, gaining reward when Grundy forced a drop out after quality work from him and Forber. Robert Roberts, enjoying his best game so far ran strongly, played the ball quickly allowing Rowley to send outstanding prop Ricky Bibey racing through a tackle and he offloaded as two more closed in for Danny Speakman to cross out wide.

Swinton piled forward early in the second half and looked to have created an opportunity four minutes in when former Leigh player Safraz Patel jumped out of acting half passing wide with a two-on-one situation. Lee Greenwood was alert to the danger, snapping up the pass before racing 95 metres untouched for a thrilling interception.

Another counter attack from deep brought points when Heremaia collected an attempted kick from Ian Watson, ran 40 metres, handed on to Greenwood, Speakman followed up in support and Gaskell crossed beneath the posts for a second try. With a 20-point advantage Leigh appeared to have won the game but more action was to follow.

Firstly Watson repaid Heremaia, collecting his pass to run 60 metres and open the Swinton account after 56 minutes.

Six minutes later, Leigh added to their lead with a fifth try, the superb Gaskell crossing for his hat-trick from Grix and an audacious 60 metre individual effort from Rowley 12 minutes from the end appeared to cement a comfortable win.

Swinton had other ideas, showing plenty of character to finish the game strongly with two tries from veteran Martin Moana and one from Stuart Oldham as they closed the Centurions winning margin to just ten points.

“I guess scoring thirty points is a positive.” said Benson. “Our defence in the first half was pretty sensational and again in patches of the second half. After that I’d say there was a time when Swinton fair near got on top of us.”

Benson also conceded that injuries had taken their toll on his squad.

“Julian [O’Neill] had a slight twinge to his groin during the week and it was probably better to rest him; we didn’t want to make it any worse. Also young Chris Hill was sick through the night, so he was out too.

“Young Cookson went off within five minutes with a knee to the hip; same thing for Dean Gaskell. Adam Hughes and Aaron Heremaia are both hamstrings but hopefully they will be fit for next week.”

GAME STATS:

Swinton:
1 Wayne English
2 Stuart Oldham
3 Dave Ashton
4 Dave Llewellyn
5 Marlon Billy
6 Martin Moana
7 Ian Watson ©
8 Rob Whittaker
9 Andy Crabtree
10 Dave Newton
11 Kris Smith
12 Ian Sinfield
13 Craig Farrimond
SUBS (All Used)
14 Safraz Patel
15 Mike Stout
16 Keiron Hersnip
17 Ian Parry

Tries: Watson (56), Moana (70, 79), Oldham (73)
Goals: Watson 1/1, Smith 1/3.

Leigh:
1 Scott Grix
2 Dean Gaskell
3 Tommy Grundy
4 Adam Hughes
5 Lee Greenwood
6 Carl Forber
7 Aaron Heremaia
8 Ricky Bibey
9 Paul Rowley ©
10 Warren Stevens
11 James Taylor
12 Tere Glassie
13 Robert Roberts
SUBS (All Used)
14 Gary Sykes
15 Danny Speakman
16 John Cookson
17 Liam Coleman

Tries: Gaskell (18, 49, 62), Speakman (37), Greenwood (44), Rowley (67)
Goals: Forber 3/6.

Attendance: 1,045.

Referee: Robert Hicks (Oldham)
Penalty Count: 8-11
Drop-outs: 2-1
Half-time Score: 0-10

Progressive Score:
0-6; 0-10; 0-14; 0-20; 6-20; 6-24; 6-30; 10-30; 14-30; 20-30.