Heywood Road Sunday
The Centurions continue their march at the top of the league having completed and impressive double over the Lions which saw the tempers boil over early in the second half and three players saw red and two saw yellow in the same incident.
Centurions coach Neil Jukes was impressed with his side’s victory saying “I knew Swinton would start strongly after their defeat last week but we scored three tries towards the end of the first half and that put us in control”.
The visitors opened the scoring on seven minutes when Lee Smith sent Tom Armstrong over on the right but Martyn Ridyard could not convert it but the Lions hit back to take the lead seven minutes later when Rhodri Lloyd and Connor Dwyer combined to send Anthony Nicholson in for the try by the posts and Chris Atkin converted. Ben White went close for the Lions and then Jonny Pownall thought he had scored but was brought back for a forward pass. The Lions then had another good chance when they got a penalty when Gareth Hock was judged to have dumped Stephen Nash in the tackle and from the penalty Mike Butt went close only to be stopped by Adam Higson.
Leigh then ran in three tries in a ten minute period towards the end of the half when Lee Smith, Pownall and Richard Whiting all crossed on the left and Ridyard added two conversions to put them in a comfortable position and they added another Smith try in the dying seconds of the half after a nice pass from Reynolds and Ridyard added the conversion via deflection off the posts as the half time hooter sounded.
I am not quite sure what both sides had in their half time brew but whatever it was it certainly warmed up the game as five minutes in Higson was tackled by Butt and the ball went lose and some pushing and shoving started which soon erupted into both teams swinging punches for what seemed a couple of minutes. After the officials had separated the teams Hock and Lions substitute Zach Johnson were shown red cards for trading punches and Higson and Butt were both sent to the sin bin for starting it all, but it wasn’t finished there as Josh Barlow who was on the Lions bench was sent off for entering the field to try and break up the fight.
The Lions then had some pressure on the Leigh line before the visitors increased their lead when Ridyard and Dayne Weston added two tries in a five minute spell both converted and then the Lions again had another chance but couldn’t finish it before Reynolds sold a huge dummy to the home defence to score a good try and again this was converted.
Jake Emmitt and Dan Fleming were both shown yellow cards for fighting with three minutes left and Centurions made the most of the penalty when new signing Josh Drinkwater scored out on the right but Reynolds could not add the conversion but it was job done for his side.
Teams :-
LIONS:
14 Kieran Hyde
2 Shaun Robinson
3 Stuart Littler
23 Rhodri Lloyd
20 Mike Butt
6 Ben White
1 Chris Atkin
16 Ben Austin
9 Anthony Nicholson
21 Andy Bracek
12 Andy Thornley
11 Connor Dwyer
19 Josh Barlow
Subs: (All Used)
NN Dan Fleming
7 Matty Beharrell
17 Stephen Nash
28 Zach Johnson
Try: Nicholson (14)
Goal: Atkin 1/1
Sent Off: Johnson (45) Punching Barlow (45) Entering the field of play from bench
Sin-Bin: Butt (45) Dissent Fleming (77) Fighting
LEIGH:
26 Lee Smith
2 Adam Higson
24 Tom Armstrong
4 Willie Tonga
15 Jonathan Pownall
6 Martyn Ridyard
31 Ben Reynolds
29 Jake Emmitt
14 Mickey Higham
10 Dayne Weston
27 Richard Whiting
16 Rene Maitua
12 Gareth Hock
Subs: (All Used)
36 Josh Drinkwater
35 Brad Fash
20 Sam Hopkins
17 Jamie Acton
Tries: Armstrong (7), Smith (24,40), Pownall (27), Whiting (34) Ridyard (55), Weston (60), Reynolds (66), Drinkwater (78).
Goals: Ridyard 5/7 Reynolds ½
Sent-Off: Hock (45) Punching
Sin-Bin: Higson (45) Dissent Emmitt (77) Fighting
Progscore: 0-4,6- 4,6-10,6- 14,6-20,6- 26,6-32,6- 38,6-44,6- 48
Men of Match
Lions: Shaun Robinson
Leigh: Ben Reynolds
Gamestar: Ben Reynolds – Controlled the side well from the middle and created a couple of tries and scored one.
Gamebreaker: Three Leigh tries midway through the first half gave them the platform to victory.
Ref: Andy Sweet
Pens: 12-12
Att: 1413
H-T: 6-26
