Match Reports about Leigh Centurions since 1998

Browse through our pages and read the match reports on Leigh penned by Dave.

Wednesday 6 January 2010

2007 Season Reports: LONDON SKOLARS 8 LEIGH CENTURIONS 52

LONDON SKOLARS 8 LEIGH CENTURIONS 52
By Dave Parkinson.

Leigh Centurions got off to a winning, if faltering start in the capital against a spirited London Skolars.

In total, Leigh scored nine tries, three by Miles Greenwood who was one of nine debutants on the day. Greenwood also had a hand in two other scores to crown a fine personal performance while returning Dave Alstead grabbed two tries.

Despite a comfortable 52-8 success, Team Manager Darren Shaw was not particularly impressed.

“Attacking wise we are still way behind where we want to be at this stage.” He said,

“Yeah we saw a couple of individual glimpses in there and we scored some tries but overall I thought it was very disappointing. I thought our completion rate was very poor. We need to raise the bar massively and that comes from a massive concentration level. Our control is really poor at this point in time. Our defence is making up for it, we scrambled really well and I’m very pleased with that aspect.

“I wanted a lot more out of that, and was a bit disappointed with a lot of the attacking options. We’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

“In the first half we had 16 sets and I think we completed six, in the second half we seemed to be defending pretty much in our quarter and around halfway and it can’t have been any better there.

e came down and we got the points, which was the main thing and we can move on. We scored a few points as well which could always help our For and Against record.”

The Centurions made a solid start and scored a try inside eight minutes by Alstead after quick hands from Anthony Stewart. French international Damien Couturier then added the first of seven successful goals from a narrow angle, one of several attempts from the sideline.

Three minutes later Couturier slipped through the defence unchallenged following Greenwood’s pass and for a time it looked like a case of how many the Centurions would amass. Unfortunately, handling errors began to creep into Leigh’s game and the Skolars responded with a period of dogged play.

During this spell hooker Frank Reid and halfbacks Paul Thorman and Jermaine Coleman looked lively while Alan Barker and David Ellison led the way in defence.

Eventually the Centurions reasserted themselves and Greenwood added the first of his treble when he held a defender at bay following a John Braddish pass after 30 minutes. With effervescent John Clough and then Sam Butterworth causing problems around the play-the-ball, gaps began to appear. Seconds from halftime, Stewart broke the line to feed Greenwood a second try; Couturier adding the extras to secure a 24-0 advantage.

Leigh added to that lead after just three minutes when Stewart touched down in the corner from Robert Roberts offload. Couturier was unable to convert but was on target ten minutes later after Chris Hill used good leg drive to power through three tacklers.

Skipper Aaron Heremaia then lit up the New River Stadium with a superb try as Clough, Tim Jonkers and Greenwood combined to put the scrumhalf in the clear and a vital hand-off on Skolars substitute Corey Simms carried him to the line from forty metres.

From the restart, Leigh hit the accelerator when Stewart raced into an opening. Support arrived from Butterworth and his well timed pass saw Alstead cross at the corner.

In metronomic fashion, Couturier added his seventh goal from eight attempts to make it 46-0 before the Skolars staged something of a rally with two tries in the last ten minutes. Home loose forward Lydon Maitua finished well at the corner after Austin Aggrey, Barker and Gareth Honour had all gone close but Throman was unable to convert.

After 74 minutes, Greenwood topped his sparkling performance with an elusive run to the posts through some tired cover defence. Heremaia converted to complete the Centurions tally before Ashley Tozer crossed in the left corner two minutes from the end.

Commenting on the performance of Greenwood Shaw added, “Miles looked really sharp. He stood up and came into first receiver and there are good signs when people want the ball. He stood up very well. He’s got great footwork. It was very heavy conditions, you didn’t realise from the side but out there it really was very heavy. Once the tracks start drying out a bit more you may start to see the best of some of these guys and he’ll be one of them.”

“We’ve been building on basics since day one, working on our execution and our skill level. There was some loose carries in there and the conditions weren’t great, they weren’t great for Skolars either but I thought their percentage rate was a lot higher. We were trying to do things before going forward first. We needed to lay a bit of a platform and then start using the ball.”

SKOLARS:
1 Ashley Tozer
2 Johnny Williams
3 Chris Shears
4 Dene Miller
5 Austin Aggrey
6 Jermaine Coleman
7 Paul Thorman
8 Richard Louw
9 Frank Reid
10 Powhiri Bidois
11 Kurt Pittman
12 Mike Castle
13 Lydon Mautia
Subs:
14 Corey Simms
15 Gareth Honor
16 Alan Barker
17 David Ellison

Tries: Mautia (70), Tozer (77).
Goals: Thorman 0/2.

LEIGH:
1 Miles Greenwood
2 Dave Alstead
3 Damien Couturier
4 Anthony Stewart
5 Leroy Rivett
6 John Braddish
7 Aaron Heremaia
8 Chris Hill
9 John Clough
10 John Hill
11 James Taylor
12 Mailangi Styles
13 Tommy Grundy
Subs:
14 Sam Butterworth
15 Tim Jonkers
16 Robert Roberts
17 John Cookson

Tries: Alstead 2 (8, 63), Couturier (11), Greenwood 3 (30, 40, 74), Stewart (43), Chris Hill (53), Heremaia (61).
Goals: Couturier 7/8, Heremaia 1/1.

No comments:

Post a Comment