Leigh Centurions 40 St Helens XIII 22 by Mike Hulme
SAINTS may have chosen to keep all their big guns under wraps, but there was no sign of any ill-feeling from Tommy Martyn.
The absence of the Longs, Sculthorpes, Cunninghams etc may, in some quarters, have been seen as disrespectful to a player who gave 10 years of his career to St Helens. But not Martyn who was quick to thank his old club for sending a side to compete in his testimonial game.
"I'm grateful to Saints," Martyn said. "I'm not at all upset that they didn't bring their big names because they didn't have to field a side at all. The team they sent gave us a useful workout and contributed greatly to a good game on a bitterly cold day."
A crowd of over 1,800 turned up to pay their tribute on a numbingly cold afternoon. "The fans were brilliant," Martyn said. "It took something to leave the fireside on such a cold day. I thank each and every one of them."
Maybe Saints will feel their decision to field just three players from their Super League squad was vindicated as four of their Academy-based side left with injuries - two of them on stretchers.
In contrast Leigh's head coach chose to field 29 of his squad with only the injured Paul Rowley and Simon Knox and the unavailable David Larder and Oliver Wilkes, not getting a run.
"It might have been a very young Saints side," said Abram. "But when Ian Millward gets injuries, these are the players he'll be drafting into his squad and they are good ones.
"Having said that we had some 16 and 17 year olds in our squad how some some maturity and great touches.
"The point of the exercise from our point of view was just to give the squad a run. It was all just a bit of fun, the result and the performance didn't matter all that much.
"We will approach the game at Warrington the same way. We're not going to show our hand, and play to any particular pattern. All that will come in February when the competitive games start."
Given that Leigh employed a cast of thousands, it's understandable that the team's performance lacked any sort of fluency. It was more a getting to know you exercise than anything else.
But the Leigh fans could hardly have missed the contributions of the likes of Ian Knott, Heath Cruckshank, Richard Marshall and Dan Potter. If this is a taste of things to come, then good times lie ahead.
Loose-forward Knott, in particular, was in supreme form. Front rowers Cruckshank and Marshall were punishing in attack and defence while Aussie Potter looked equally comfortable whether in the second row or centres.
And in Dale Cardoza the Centurions have a top class finisher. If he can keep his short-fuse temper in check he will give Leigh a sharp cutting edge in the season to come.
Another newcomer, Chris Percival, took his two tries well and Cardoza also went in for a couple - his second a rousing 50 metre solo effort. Neil Turley popped up on the wing to grab a couple himself as Leigh eased to a comfortable victory after being pushed all the way for more than an hour.
Leigh's other tries came from Shane Irabor, Steve Maden and Andy Isherwood.
Goal-kicking clearly wasn't one of Leigh's priorities with virtually the entire team having a pot at some stage. The light-hearted spirit was epitomised by Dave Bradbury who gave a pretty fair Jonny Wilkinson impression to convert Cardoza's second try. The only other to find the target was Percival.
Leigh squad: McCulley, Irabor, Potter, Percival, Alstead, Martyn, Duffy, Bradbury, McConnell, Marshall, Isherwood, Blackwood, Knott, Coates, Halliwell, Cardoza, Munro, Turley, Bibey, Cruckshank, Maden, Cragg, Coley, Maddocks, Govin, Fairhurst, Woods, Taylor, Grundy.
Attendance: 1,814.
Referee: Peter Taberner (Wigan).
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