2006 Season Reports: WIDNES 10 LEIGH 25

Widnes Vikings 10
Leigh Centurions 25
Dave Parkinson from the Halton Stadium

Leigh Centurions made it four Northern Rail Cup wins on the bounce with this impressive display in wet weather at Widnes.

“It was a very physical game - quite fast actually.” said winning coach Tony Benson.
“It tested us in lots of different areas and what impressed me most was that we stood up in each one. We reached our discipline goal, we got the win and completed sets too – that was significant in tough conditions.”

It was Widnes who made the better start when Mark Smith darted over after 4 minutes and Lee Marsh made it 6-0 with the boot. Leigh responded quickly when Tere Glassie drew two defenders and passed wide for Lee Greenwood to score the first of an impressive try hat-trick. On 26 minutes Greenwood was in again thanks to a good kick from scrum-half Aaron Heremaia, and Carl Forber made it 12-6.

That was how it remained until the interval, despite the Vikings forcing a drop-out at one end and the otherwise impressive Glassie being stopped short following Grix’ blistering run in centre-field.

The second half followed much the same forward-dominated pattern with some ferocious tackles going in from the likes of Mick Cassidy and Danny Heaton for Widnes with Ricky Bibey and James Taylor responding for Leigh.

It was Leigh that grabbed a decisive try after 54 minutes when returning Richard Moore parted the Widnes defence from ten metres. Forber converted but missed a fairly kickable penalty on the hour. A rare Widnes break saw James Coyle tackled by Taylor and the Leigh man was sin-binned for lying on. Widnes could not take advantage however and the game was won moments later when Heremaia’s long kick into the corner saw Greenwood race 70 metres for his third ahead of Vikings fullback David Peachey. Widnes failed to make ten metres with the kick restart and Leigh marched downfield for Heremaia to kick a field-goal.

Widnes refused to give in and scored the final points of the game when slick hands between Durbin, Coyle and Smith saw Paul Alcock cross in the corner, but it proved too little too late, a fact acknowledged by Vikings coach Steve McCormack.

“We got off to a flyer and finished well.” He said. “I’m really disappointed, certainly for the spectators who have turned out. The game was all about kicking and territory and Leigh had more of that. As the game went on we were trying to offload and our error count was getting higher and higher. I can’t knock the effort, but we didn’t perform; there are no excuses from me.”

GAMEBREAKER: Greenwood’s hat-trick try aided by Forbers fourth goal gave the Centurions an unassailable 24-6 lead.

GAMESTAR: On a night dominated by forwards Tere Glassie just shaded colleagues Paul Rowley, Ricky Bibey and Widnes Mark Smith.

MATCHFACTS:

Widnes Vikings:
1 David Peachey
2 Paul O’Connor
3 Damian Reid
4 Gavin Dodd
5 Lucas Onyango
6 Lee Marsh
7 James Coyle
8 Terry O’Connor
9 Mark Smith
10 Barrie McDermott
11 Mick Cassidy
12 Danny Heaton
13 David Allen
Subs (All Used)
14 Aaron Summers
15 Bob Beswick
16 Jamie Durbin
17 Paul Alcock

Tries: Smith (4), Alcock (78).
Goals: Marsh 1/1, Beswick 0/1.

Leigh Centurions:
1 Scott Grix
2 Misili Manu
3 Tommy Grundy
4 Danny Speakman
5 Lee Greenwood
6 Carl Forber
7 Aaron Heremaia
8 Ricky Bibey
9 Paul Rowley
10 Chris Hill
11 James Taylor
12 Tere Glassie
13 Robert Roberts
Subs (All Used)
14 Gary Sykes
15 Dana Wilson
16 Liam Coleman
17 Richard Moore

Tries: Greenwood (14, 26, 68), Moore (54).
Goals: Forber 4/5.
Field-goal: Heremaia.
Sin-binned: James Taylor (65) Laying on in the tackle.

Referee: Mr Ronnie Laughton (Barnsley)
Penalties: 7-13
GLDO 2-2
Attendance: 4,133

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match:

Widnes: Mark Smith Leigh: Tere Glassie