#halton stadium

[salfordredsheritage]

St. Helens 31–6 Salford City Reds

Salford 6–0: 4' Danny Williams (try) & Daniel Holdsworth (conv)

St. Helens: 16' James Graham (sin bin)

Salford: 17' Ray Cashmere (sin bin)

St. Helens 31–6:

21' Iosia Soliola (try) & Jamie Foster (conv)

25' Thomas Makinson (try) & Jamie Foster (conv)

39' Jonny Lomax (drop goal)

49' Francis Meli (try) & Jamie Foster (conv)

54' Matty Ashurst (try) & Jamie Foster (conv)

74' Lee Gaskill (try) & Jamie Foster (conv)

[leighupdates-blog]

Widnes Vikings 18 - Leigh Centurions 24

Leigh Centurions fought in a tough battle against local rivals Widnes Vikings on Sunday afternoon, eventually running out 18 - 24 winners at the Halton Stadium.  The game will be the last league clash between the two sides for at least three years due to Widnes' successful application to Super League for the 2012 season.  Leigh however made sure that you will have to go back to 2008 for the last time a Vikings side turned over Leigh, making it 8 straight wins against the Vikings.

Leigh started this encounter very poorly.  On only the second tackle of the game, an uncharacteristic mistake from Jimmy Taylor gave Widnes possession on the Leigh line straight away.  The Vikings were unable to convert the pressure into points but it was an early warning sign for the Centurions.

A sign of the rivalry between the two sides would follow as a big hit on David Mills, saw the big prop held down on the floor.  He didn’t like this treatment and it brought the two sides in to pushing and shoving.  Not much came of it, except a Widnes scrum for a knock on by Mills.  This gave Widnes the attacking position they needed and were able to get on the scoreboard first.  A break was cut short by Donlan but as the Leigh defence was scrambling, the ball was quickly spun to the corner for Tyrer to finish and get his 50th try for the Widnes club.  He converted his own try to make it 6 – 0 to the hosts.

Leigh then hit back with a quick play the ball on halfway to Hunter-Paul who quickly offloaded to Hill.  He slipped a brilliant pass for Donlan to cut through a hole in the defence at pace.  He was supported by Hunter-Paul who looked to be going for the line himself before he was cut down by a high tackle.  Robbie managed to gather himself and with the tackle incomplete was able to feed Ridyard to cross for Leigh’s opening score.  Nanyn added the extras to level things at the Halton Stadium.

On the back of some indiscipline by the Vikings, Leigh were able to take the lead.  Some good drives set the position before Ellis was able to dive for the line in what has become a trademark try for the standoff.  He managed to carry three defenders over the line with him and ground the ball.  A great effort from the Hull FC bound Ellis.  Nanyn again added the conversion, 6 – 12.

Widnes were able to bring the game level again through a clever kick towards the posts.  The kick was a grubber that bounced up and hit the post high as Donlan and the oncoming Widnes players were chasing.  The ball completely changed direction and fell for Crosby to simply dive on unattended.  Tyrer added the simple conversion, 12 – 12.

Leigh then went on the attack looking to restore their lead.  However, a floated pass on the left hand side was intercepted by Widnes and Donlan again just managed to cut short the break in the Leigh 20.  With the defensive line in disarray, Leigh scrambled to hold the Vikings back and managed to contain a further two tackles.  Just as it looked like Leigh had saved the situation, Tompkins chimed into the attack and barged his way over to ground under heavy attention from the Leigh defence.  Tyrer added a difficult conversion to send the hosts in at half time, 18 – 12 to the good.

The Centurions managed to step up a gear in the second half, however it was a tough battle to regain the lead and secure a vital three points.  Some steely defence laid the platform for Leigh to salvage the game and it was ex-Widnes centre Mick Nanyn who bring Leigh back within a one try striking distance of Widnes.  An attack down the left hand side saw Leigh go close and the chance looked to have gone but a short ball to Nanyn allowed the big centre to crash through the defence and just stretch out to ground the ball.  Nanyn was unable to convert his own try so Leigh were still two points behind, 18 – 16.

The arm wrestle then continued, until around 10 minutes left on the clock when Leigh finally put together a great move from their own 40 metre line.  A sweeping move to the right hand side saw Rhys Evans break away before feeding to Maden.  The experienced winger looked to be caught before giving an unorthodox offload back to Evans.  With a Widnes defender helpless on the floor, Evans was able to round him and offload to Donlan who gave the ball to the ever supporting Ellis to finish sending the travelling 1000 Leigh fans barmy.  A conversion from Nanyn stretched Leigh’s lead to 4, 18 – 22. 

The game was by no means won though, and in the final few minutes Leigh had to hold their nerve on the line.  A big defensive effort gave Leigh the opportunity to drive away from their line, with Duffy making a great break.  A quick play the ball on the back of the break saw Tyrone McCarthy high tackled, presenting Nanyn with the opportunity to add another two points to Leigh’s score.  The prolific centre was on target again and as streams of Widnes fans left the stadium the final hooter went, securing Leigh’s eighth win in a row against the Vikings.

Leigh must now look to win their three remaining games by as big a margin as possible and hope Featherstone lose without a bonus point if they are to have any chance of adding the league title to their Northern Rail Cup win this season.

WIDNES Team:  Penny, Flynn, Gardner, Tyrer, Mellor, I’Anson, Hulme, Finnigan, Allen, Leuluai, Coyle, Pickersgill, Kavanagh.

Subs:  Varkulis, Grady, Tompkins, Crosby

LEIGH Team:  Donlan, Maden, McGilvray, Littler, Nanyn, Ridyard, Hunter-Paul, Ellis, Goulden, Taylor, Mills, Hill, Evans.

Subs:  Nash, McCarthy, Duffy, Thornley.

Referee: T Roby

Attendance: 4,732