2008 Season Reports: LEIGH CENTURIONS 28 FEATHERSTONE ROVERS 20

LEIGH CENTURIONS 28 FEATHERSTONE ROVERS 20
DAVE PARKINSON at Hilton Park

Neil Kelly’s reign got away to a successful start at Leigh Centurions as his new charges built a 22-4 half-time advantage, and even three tries in the last twelve minutes from Rovers failed to take the gloss off the performance in his eyes.

“I couldn’t ask for more than a winning start.” He said. “The performance on the whole was good. The discipline was great for sixty-seventy minutes. On the whole over the game, I’m not going to let the last ten minutes take away from what was a good performance.”

The Centurions opened play confidently and 19-year old fullback Ian Mort epitomised this with break from deep that forced Rovers to back track. Approach work from Ian Watson was then finished by Andy Hobson and Watson tagged on the first of a perfect six goals from six attempts.

Featherstone saw an opportunity from Richard Blakeway go to ground and had the best of play for ten minutes before John Cookson was held down and Watson converted the penalty from thirty metres. With the running of Dennis Moran starting to have an impact, Leigh were awarded a penalty that Moran tapped and surged upfield. A clash with Tony Tonks led to blows being traded and an all-in brawl saw play stopped for a couple of minutes. The result? Two red cards. One for Tonks, the other for Moran and the whole incident on report.

“I don’t see what you are supposed to do when someone is raining punches on you” commented Kelly. “I just think its self defence. I’m not trying to pre-empt what the disciplinary will say. I’ve not seen the video so I’m not going to say too much.”

The resulting penalty went the way of Leigh with Watson again striking successfully from thirty metres for a 10-0 advantage. Rovers then came to life with a run from impressive Loz Wildbore forcing a try-saver from Mort. This only slowed the inevitable though as play moved right and Tommy Haughey sent Kirk over in the corner for Featherstones first try after 27 minutes.

Eight minutes later Dave McConnell broke the deadlock following strong carries from Lee Doran and Gareth Price with Watson making it 16-4 with the kick. McConnell was at the forefront of the Centurions next effort when his quick play the ball released Hobson under the posts with minimal contact.

Leading 22-4 at halftime the Centurions had the best opportunity to extend their advantage when Leigh worked an overlap but Dave Alstead’s ball for Chris Giles was spilled with the line open. A few minutes later, a three pass play from Featherstone saw Carl Hughes drop the ball before Doran punched through the defence on 53 minutes for McConnell to collect the return pass and run over unopposed. John Hill then had Leigh’s next opportunity of points but the big prop lost possession and Rovers went the length of the field on their next set with Tommy Saxton running 40 metres before linking with Kirk for his second. The final ten minutes belonged to Rovers with Saxton almost single-handedly winning the bonus point for Featherstone.

After 75 minutes Hughes was held up over the line and Saxton somehow offloaded despite the attentions of three defenders for debutant Matthew Handforth to chip over the defence and touch down, then with the seconds ticking down another never-say-die effort saw him support play, bump off a couple of tackles and send Haughey under the posts for Stuart Dickens to add his second goal.

Featherstone boss David Hobbs felt “by and large it was one of the worst games of rugby league” that he’d seen this year.

“Neither side were allowed continuity. Some bizarre decisions never let either side become dominant” He said. “We wanted to play the game faster than we did. I’m disappointed by our performance, I felt that Leigh were there to be beaten and their bigger guys got the better of ours in the first half.”

“Neil Kelly will look at that and know that they can improve greatly and I know we can play a lot better than that, and that’s what hurts. Tommy Saxton was outstanding and he certainly got us back for this bonus point that no-one really likes winning.”

GAMEBREAKER: McConnell’s second try took Leigh 24 points clear and despite a good late rally from Rovers they were unable to bridge the gap.

GAMESTAR: For sixty minutes Dave McConnell was head and shoulders above anyone else on the field but special mentions must also be made for his front row colleagues Andy Hobson and Gareth Price while for Featherstone, Tommy Saxton was outstanding.

CENTURIONS
1 Ian Mort
2 Chris Giles
3 Dave Alstead
4 Tony Stewart
5 Steve Maden
6 Dennis Moran
7 Ian Watson
8 Andy Hobson
9 Dave McConnell
10 Gareth Price
11 James Taylor
12 Lee Doran
13 Mike Wainwright
Subs (all used)
14 Aaron Smith
15 John Cookson
16 John Hill
17 Lee Marsh

Tries: Hobson (2, 39), McConnell (35, 53)
Goals: Watson 6/6
Field goal:
On Report: Brawl (20) involving several players
Sin bin: (TIME) – offence
Dismissal: Moran (20) – fighting

ROVERS
1 Loz Wildbore
2 Andy Kirk
3 Tommy Haughey
4 Tommy Saxton
5 Lee Lingard
6 Andy Kain
7 Paul Handforth
8 Tony Tonks
9 Joe McLocklan
10 Stuart Dickens
11 Jamie Field
12 Richard Blakeway
13 Carl Hughes
Subs (all used)
14 Gavin Swinson
15 Sean Hesketh
16 Matthew Handforth (D)
17 James Houston

Tries: Kirk (27, 68), Matthew Handforth (76), Haughey (79).
Goals: Dickens 2/4
On Report: Brawl (20) involving several players
Sin bin: (TIME) – offence
Dismissal: Tonks (20) – fighting

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Centurions: Dave McConnell
Rovers: Tommy Saxton

Penalty count: 8-5
Half-time: 22-4
Referee: Mike Dawber
Attendance: 1,920

SCORING SEQUENCE
6-0, 8-0, 10-0, 10-4, 16-4, 22-4; 28-4, 28-8, 28-14, 28-20.