Leigh Centurions 26 Hull KR 22 by Mike Hulme: NEIL Turley stepped off the treatment table to kick Leigh to a crucial victory in the race for the Minor Premiership.

Had Damien Munro not failed a fitness test on his damaged ankle, Turley would have been in the stands instead of kicking seven goals from eight shots.

The scoreboard showed just how important Turley's accuracy was as Rovers outscored Leigh by four tries to three.

After missing two previous games with a a calf muscle injury, Turley had earmarked next weekend's showdown with Whitehaven as his comeback game. But when Munro's ankle problem flared up again, Turley put his hand up and volunteered to play.

Coach Darren Abram needed some convincing, however. "I needed to know that Neil was 100 per cent and he wasn't volunteering out of bravado or a sense of duty. But he convinced me he was OK and I think his performance on the pitch showed that he was OK. Nobody kicks goals from out of their own half if they've a dodgy leg!"

That 55-metre penalty shot - albeit wind-assisted - put Leigh 14-10 up at half time and appeared to give them the confidence to effectively win the game in the third quarter.

After the most traumatic of weeks at Hilton Park Leigh's confidence must have been fragile. But seeing Turley's monster kick sail between the posts seemed to give them the shot in the arm they needed.

With John Duffy back to something like his best form and pulling all Leigh's attacking strings, Leigh played their best stuff in the 20-odd minutes after half time. Two tries in that spell were scant reward for their dominance but credit Rovers for some tenacious tryline defence.

It was only when Leigh got a little lazy in defence did Rovers punish them and make it a tighter finish than it should have been.

Referee Ronnie Laughton did nothing to help the flow of the game, dishing out 30 penalties - the vast majority for minor technical infringements.

He set his stall out early by penalising both sides in the opening four minutes for interference at the ruck - decisions which led to points. Turley kicked Leigh into a 2-0 lead from Leigh's penalty while Rovers chose to run theirs into a blustery wind and were rewarded when Anthony Seibold's long pass enabled Craig Poucher to cut back inside and force his way over through a forest of Leigh bodies.

It wasn't long before Leigh were in front. Duffy stabbed a kick behind Rovers defensive line and try poacher Chris Percival was on it in a flash to score his 20th of the season. Turley's conversion and a penalty soon afterwards opened up a 10-4 lead.

But Leigh didn't enjoy the advantage for too long. When Heath Cruckshank lost possession on his own 20 metre line Rovers were quick to punish the error. The dangerous Paul Mansson slipped away from a Phil Jones tackle and sent second rower Andy Smith unchallenged through to the posts. Poucher goaled for 10-10.

Two penalties in the closing three minutes of the half restored Leigh's lead. The first was a regulation effort from in front of the posts, the second, awarded 55 metres out for a high shot on Willie Swann, went like a shell off Turley's boot to clear the crossbar comfortably.

The shape of the game changed in the first 20 minutes of the second half with Leigh opening up what turned out to be a match-winning 26-10 lead.

A strong drive by Richard Marshall set up the position from where Oliver Wilkes, in at loose forward instead of skipper Ian Knott, forced himself under the posts for a 44th minute try that Turley again converted.

Mr Laughton finally lost patience with Rovers' tactics at the play the ball and sent Jimmy Walker to the sin-bin. While he was off Leigh scored again.

Leigh gave debuts to transfer deadline signings Craig Weston and Luke Isakka but it was another new recruit, Phil Jones, who set up the decisive score just short of the hour mark. Jones created his own gap, went through it, and with some assistance from Turley and Duffy, Percival was able to get across out wide.

With Rovers fighting for a play-off place they weren't going to throw the towel in this time and two tries in the final 14 minutes had Leigh sweating.

The man who did the damage was New Zealander Frank Watene. Twice hitting short balls at pace he scattered the first line of defence and had enough speed to make the line. Poucher added both conversions and Leigh had to survive a tricky final few minutes before the points were in the bag.

Scorers: Leigh - Tries: Percival (15, 59), Wilkes (44). Gls: Turley 7/8.

Hull KR - Tries: Poucher (4), Smith (24), Watene (66, 77). Gls: Poucher 3/4.

Leigh: Turley; Smyth, Weston, Percival, Alstead; Jones, Duffy; Knox, Rowley, Sturm, Larder, Isherwood, Wilkes. Subs (all used): Swann, Marshall, Isakka, Cruckshank.

Rovers: Owen; Pinkney, Poucher, Parker, McLarron; Mansson, Hasty; Netherton, Ellis, Aizue, Smith, Seibold, Ball. Subs (all used): Walker, Wildbore, Watene, Fletcher.

Handling errors: Leigh 6, Rovers 10.

Penalties conceded: Leigh 15, Rovers 15.

Sin-bin: Walker (Rovers) - 52 mins interference.

Half time: 14-10

Full time: 26-22

Referee: Ronnie Laughton (Barnsley).

Attendance 1768

Man

rNEIL Turley may have taken the scoring honours but it was John Duffy who took over Tommy Martyn's play-making role and made Leigh tick.

Magic

rIT has to be Turley's monster penalty kick from five metres inside his own half. Shades of John Woods in his pomp.

Moan

rLETTING Rovers off the hook when they had them on the ropes at 26-10. They can't afford to be so accomodating against Whitehaven next weekend.