2008 Season Reports: LEIGH 38 BARROW 20

LEIGH CENTURIONS 38

BARROW RAIDERS 20
DAVE PARKINSON at Hilton Park

Leigh Centurions final season at Hilton Park got off to a winning start with a 12-try fest and hard-fought 38-20 victory. Don’t be fooled by the final score, for seventy minutes the Raiders were every bit as good as the Centurions despite missing the mercurial talents of Darren Holt.

“I thought it was a great effort” reflected new Barrow boss Dave Clark. “We’ll take a lot of positives out of it but there were some negatives with completion rates being a bit low at times and general decision making. For a first game though the effort was good. We are trying to play a little bit of footy and our first try was very good. We then got it back to 24-20 in the second half at one stage.”

Barrow shocked Leigh in only the second minute when Martin Ostler was able to smuggle the ball out of a tackle and Jamie Nixon seared up the touchline. Brad Nicholls was unable to convert.

Leigh replied quickly when Ian Watson and Dennis Moran moved play wide for Toa Kohe-Love to cross with an angled run. Watson converted but the Barrow response was spirited as they scrapped for every metre. With 12 minutes gone Jamie Marshall was first to a low kick that appeared to ricochet off a couple of players before the stand-off’s scoring touch. Jack Pedley tagged on the goal points before sprightly work from Aaron Smith created a break on the left and Nathan McAvoy swept over. Watson was unable to add the extras but popped up four minutes later to get the scoring touch after both Smith and Mike Wainwright kicked the ball behind the goal-line.

The Centurions then seemingly took control when McAvoy crashed through for his second try and they held on to lead 20-10 at half-time.

Leigh had all the early territory at the start of the second half but ball control deserted them. With former Hull KR hooker Andy Ellis a growing influence and the likes of Barrow’s 80 game man Paul Raftery and fellow sub Lee Dutton taking some stopping, there was little surprise when a third Raiders try followed. Barrow softened the Leigh defence up and forced two repeat sets of possession before Ellis picked his way through at dummy half from close range. His conversion saw just four points between the sides.

Once again Leigh responded. Chris Giles was held short of the line and on the very next play Lee Doran bulldozed through. Barrow again showed their fighting spirit and when Wainwright saw an attempted offload palmed into the path of Liam Harrison, the former Warrington fullback who veered left and created space for Nixon to again race down the wing. Although Steve Maden checked his run, Nixon still had presence of mind to regain his feet and touch down.

At this point there was little between the teams. Watson fired his restart high, Moran contested and Kohe-Love came up with possession. Leigh drove within range before Mark Morrison was held. Chris Hill, Moran and James Taylor were all involved in the build-up before Kohe-Love again wrong-footed the defence for his second try.

As Barrow fatigued, Leigh finally took control with late tries from McAvoy and Tony Stewart allied with one conversion from Dennis Moran bringing around the final score.

Leigh coach Paul Rowley said, “We expected a pretty scrappy game. Barrow were a similar sort of team to Workington who we played last week but at the end of the day we came away with a win and that is pleasing. We are off and running, have three points in the bag and can move on from here. We are looking forward to the dry tracks but there is a lot of rugby to be played before then. I think that we overplayed it a bit today, we have to control the ball better and build a bit more pressure, and that was clear to see. I always felt that we did have enough in the tank to win the game.”

GAMEBREAKER: Nathan McAvoy’s hat-trick score put Barrow twelve points behind and there was no way back.

GAMESTAR: Chris Hill – did plenty of hard work and gave the Centurions a good platform on attack in his 50th Centurion game.


CENTURIONS
1 Chris Giles
2 Nathan McAvoy
3 Adam Rudd
4 Toa Kohe-Love
5 Steve Maden
6 Dennis Moran
7 Ian Watson
8 Andy Hobson
9 Aaron Smith
10 John Hill
11 Mike Wainwright
12 Lee Doran
13 James Taylor
Subs (all used)
14 Mark Roberts
15 Anthony Stewart
16 Mike Morrison
17 Chris Hill

Tries: Kohe-Love 2 (4, 69), McAvoy 3 (18, 26, 77), Watson (22), Doran (57), Stewart (80)
Goals: Watson 2/6, Moran 1/2
Field goals:
On Report: (TIME) – offence
Sin bin: (TIME) – offence
Dismissal: (TIME) – offence

RAIDERS
1 Liam Harrison
2 Chris Larkin
3 Mike Whitehead
4 Andrew Beattie
5 James Nixon
6 Jamie Marshall
7 Brad Nicholls
8 Jamie Butler
9 Jack Pedley
10 Paul Wilcock
11 Brett McDermott
12 Martin Ostler
13 James Gordon
Subs (all used)
14 Andy Ellis
15 Dave Armitstead
16 Paul Raftery
17 Lee Dutton

Tries: Nixon 2 (2, 67), Marshall (12), Ellis (54)
Goals: Pedley 1/1, Nicholls 0/2, Ellis 1/1
Field Goals:
On Report: (TIME) – offence
Sin bin: (TIME) – offence
Dismissal: (TIME) – offence

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Centurions: Chris Hill
Raiders: Martin Ostler

Penalty count: 10-8
Half-time: 20-10
Referee: Phil Bentham (Warrington)
Attendance: 1,642

Scoring Sequence:
0-4, 6-4, 6-10, 10-10, 16-10, 20-10; 20-16, 24-16, 24-20, 28-20, 32-20, 38-20.