2009 Season Reports: Pre-season Friendly: LEIGH CENTURIONS 0 WIGAN WARRIORS 32

LEIGH CENTURIONS 0
WIGAN WARRIORS 32
DAVE PARKINSON at Leigh Sports Village

There is nothing to get the passion flowing quite like a Leigh and Wigan derby and these have been sadly lacking in the Rugby League calendar over recent years with Wigan’s 34-6 victory over the Centurions in 2006 being the last encounter – until now.

The official opening of the new Sports Village Stadium brought in an impressive crowd of 6,476 on a bitterly cold afternoon while Wigan certainly brought their “A” game to again show the difference between top six Super League and top six Championship.

At times the Warriors were ruthless, speedy, agile, clever and dangerous while Leigh showed once more they have a hard working team that can trouble the best but they need to develop a clinical streak to convert chances when presented.

Victorious coach Brian Noble commented, “It was a good defensive work out for us today. We weren’t as fluent as I’d have liked us to be, but we lost both our nines this week in practice. Mark Flanagan went in there really well, while we rolled Thomas Leuluai round there with Sam Tomkins. We were obviously going to lack a bit of fluidity but we bent our backs, which was good. You could see the improvement in relation to the last time we went out there – defensively. Leigh kept testing us and kept testing the systems defensively and at this time of year that is where games are going to be won and lost, on things like kick chase.”

Wigan started brightly and after trialist Brett Longstaff spilled an early pass, the Warriors piled the pressure on with Tim Smith eventually sending point scoring ace Pat Richards to the line with a long cut-out pass. Richards landed the first of four goals and the Warriors were away – 6-0.

Stuart Donlan was then halted in the corner for Leigh although Wigan charged up to the other end of the field for Iafeta Paleaaesina to make a good impression of a human wrecking ball and scatter a couple of defenders on his way to the try line. Again Richards was on form with the boot.

Wigan stepped up the pace with a superb passing move involving six players before Cameron Phelps dropped the ball in the corner. It was then Leigh’s turn to attack but whereas Wigan came up with tries on their visits into the twenty metre zone, Leigh forced drop-outs – two in succession, but other than Donlan and Jamie Smith being denied, they couldn’t convert.

Still, Leigh kept up the pressure without ever truly threatening and on the two occasions they did, first Ian Watson, then Martyn Ridyard threw passes that were intercepted by Richards and Phelps respectively. The Phelps intercept proved costly with the former Cronulla back racing downfield with Ridyard, Donlan and Adam Higson all in pursuit. Although Phelps was stopped, Wigan quickly passed wide and Andy Coley bounced Smith out of the way to touch down.

At 16-0 Leigh were hanging on again when the dynamic Harrison Hansen was held on the last tackle and that was how things remained at halftime.

Two tries in eight minutes tipped the game in Wigan’s favour. Both were a result of Leigh conceding penalties that put the visitors in good attacking areas. First Thomas Leluai burrowed through from dummy half after the Centurions failed to number up close to their own line, then a classy run from Sean O’Loughlin saw him skip two attempted tackles to cross at the side of the posts. Richards struck both goals and 28-0 looked comfortable.

O’Loughlin thought he was on route to a second try after 55 minutes but the pass from Phelps to his skipper was ruled forward. The game took on added spice shortly after the hour mark when a physical tackle on Sam Tomkins brought both packs to confrontation. This seemed to work in the Centurions favour as on the back of sterling work from James Taylor, Leigh pierced the Wigan defence for Sam Reay to be tackled close to the line. Twice, Leigh forced drop outs, but each time, the defence held firm and the Warriors again displayed their clinical edge and Super League guile when cross field passes presented an opportunity for Phil Bailey and he grounded near the corner flag for the Warriors final try after 68 minutes.

Although there was no further addition to the score, Leigh offered a little more in attack during the final ten minutes. Steve Maden’s inventive chip came to nought and John Cookson could only watch on as Phelps won the race to Watson’s delicate grubber kick.

“We won’t play teams like Wigan every week” said Leigh boss Neil Kelly afterwards. “I can’t fault the effort. We just need more composure. We forced pressure but failed to get across their line.”


GAMEBREAKER: Two tries in the first eight minutes of the second half for Wigan took the game away from Leigh and left the Centurions players scrapping for places for next weekend’s season opener at Featherstone

GAMESTAR: Thomas Leuluai – especially when switched to hooker, he caused problems galore for the Leigh defence.

CENTURIONS
1 Stuart Donlan
5 Nick Stanton
3 Steve Maden
19 Adam Rudd
22 Jamie Smith
23 Martyn Ridyard
7 Ian Watson
Brett Longstaff
9 Dave McConnell
10 Mike Morrison
12 James Taylor
11 Dave Armitstead
4 Tony Stewart
SUBS (All Used)
14 Ian Mort
Lee Marsh
15 Adam Higson
16 Chris Hill
Danny Meekin
Jamie Durbin
18 Sam Reay
20 John Cookson

Tries: -
Goals: -
Drop-goals: -

WARRIORS
1 Richard Mathers
21 Cameron Phelps
3 Darrell Goulding
4 George Carmont
5 Pat Richards
6 Tim Smith
7 Thomas Leuluai
8 Stuart Fielden
26 Mark Flanagan
10 Iafeta Paleaaesina
11 Gareth Hock
12 Philip Bailey
13 Sean O’Loughlin
Subs: (All Used)
14 Joel Tomkins
15 Andy Coley
16 Harrison Hansen
19 Paul Prescott
20 Karl Pryce
23 Eamon O’Carroll
25 Sam Tomkins

Tries: Richards (3), Paleaaesina (15), Coley (30), Leuluai (46), O’Loughlin (48), Bailey (68).
Goals: Richards 4/6
Drop-goals:

Referee: Mr Phil Bentham.
Penalties: 9-11
Attendance: 6,476.
Halftime: 0-16.

Rugby Leaguer and League Express Men of the Match:
Leigh: Stuart Donlan
Wigan: Thomas Leuluai