Brilliant-Leigh!

P

AUL Terzis could be forgiven for allowing himself a smile of satisfaction as he left his seat at Hilton Park on Sunday afternoon.

And rightly so, after watching his in-form Centurions take one of the National League One rivals to the cleaners.

But the greater satisfaction will come from the message Leigh's awesome destruction of Rovers will send out to the rest of the division.

The Centurions are back in business - and mean business!

Having steered his team through the choppy waters of qualification in the Arriva Trains Cup, Terzis now sees his team two points clear at the top of the table with an impressive record of played four, won four.

Even more impressive than their 100 per cent record is the manner in which those results have been achieved. The 'Feelgood Factor' is back at Hilton Park.

A proud Terzis said: "This result will make a few people sit up and take notice. Featherstone are one of the top teams in our competition but we were a class apart today. It's very pleasing the way the team is coming together."

Just seven days after they'd produced one of the shock results of the season by beating bookies' favourites Salford, Rovers were ruthlessly dismantled by a team on top of its game.

T

he first 40 minutes were probably as good as it gets. Leigh's swift and incisive attacks brought five first half tries while the watertight defence restricted Rovers to just a handful of raids into Leigh's '20'. It was that one-sided it was almost embarrassing.

Leigh's blistering start rocked Rovers to their bootlaces.

"We'd talked about making a good start because I was concerned that the weather might deteriorate the longer the game went on, "Terzis revealed. "We knew what we wanted to do in attack and our execution was so good that everything we did came off for us."

Terzis seemed to target Rovers' left flank defence as a weak spot as Leigh attacked relentlessly down that side in the first half and four of their five tries came down that channel.

The wheels of Leigh's finely-tuned attacking machine were in motion within the first 90 seconds when, helped by a penalty out of their own half, Paul Rowley and Adam Bristow worked a blind side move that ended with Phil Kendrick smashing his way through the defence and over for the first try. Pat Weisner, whose influence of the game was to become immeasurable, clipped over the touchline conversion for a 6-0 lead.

Rovers clearly hadn't legislated for such a rip-roaring Leigh start and were still trying to clear their heads when the Centurions came up with a second try. In one set of six tackles they came out of their own half and again attacked the left flank where Sean Richardson knocked away two defenders to dive in.

Leigh's third try in the same place came just moments later when Bristow's short ball found Kendrick who battered his way through for another touchdown.

Shell-shocked Rovers looked ready to raise the white flag of surrender when Leigh roared in for their fourth try in the 15th minute. Dale Cardoza produced a trademark burst out his own half, his wing partner Alan Hadcroft carried the move on before sending the supporting Bristow on a clear run to line.

Weisner, after his initial success with the boot, missed three in a row but recovered his composure to finish the game with seven successes. But there was far more to Weisner's game than kicking goals; his variety of passes, forceful breaks and solid defence have quickly made him an invaluable member of the side and his half-back partnership with John Duffy is troubling every side Leigh meet.

W

eisner kicked Leigh into a 20-0 lead with a 23rd minute penalty and almost half an hour had gone before Rovers got within sight of the Leigh tryline. But when a stray Rovers pass was snapped up by Leigh, it started a passage of play that brought another Centurions' try. Leigh worked a five-to-four overlap on Rovers' suspect left defence and by simply drawing and passing they got top scorer Damian Munro in for the first of his hat-trick. Weisner's conversion gave Leigh a match-winning 26-0 lead.

Rovers made a better fist of it in the second half and at times had Leigh's defences stretched, but by the time they had made an impact the Centurions were out of sight by building up a 44-0 lead.

It took just six minutes to get the scoreboard ticking over again. As Rovers tried to pass their way out of trouble, the alert Munro picked off a wide, speculative pass by Carl Briggs to stride away for his second try and a 32-0 lead.

I

t wasn't long before Leigh added to their tally as Richard Chapman, under pressure from Weisner, fumbled badly and in a twinkling Rowley was under the posts for his 11th of the season.

Just after the hour Weisner's booming 40/20 to the corner brought the reward it deserved as Leigh swiftly moved the ball from left to right and Duffy held up a pass in a two-man tackle for Munro to complete his treble.

Rovers finally made the line 13 minutes from time when second rower Steve Dooler hit a short ball, knocked Duffy away, and sprinted in. Briggs added the extras.

But it was only a temporary setback as Leigh responded with the ninth and final try. Duffy and sub Dale Holdstock created half a yard and replacement winger Leroy Rivett showed brilliant footwork to get round Adrian Flynn and nip over in the corner.

With Leigh in cruise control they had the luxury of playing the final six or

seven minutes a man short but paid for it when Chapman sent Andy Rice over for another Briggs converted try.

Rovers coach Andy Kelly was as stunned as his players, saying: "We made a poor start - and simply got worse!"

There'll be a lot of soul-searching at Post Office Road this week and don't be surprised to see a more determined Rovers side make the return trip for this Sunday's Arriva Trains quarter-final showdown.

SCORERS

Leigh: Tries - Kendrick (2, 12), Richardson (8), Bristow (15), Munro (29, 46, 62), Rowley (59), Rivett (74). Gls: Weisner 7/10.

Featherstone: Tries - Dooler (65), Rice (80). Briggs 2/2.

LEIGH: Alstead; Munro, Cardoza, Kendrick, Hadcroft; Weisner, Duffy; Nickle, Rowley, Norman, Richardson, Henare, Bristow. Subs used: Holdstock, Swann, Rivett, Bradbury.

ROVERS: Graham; Stokes, Langley, Brown, Flynn; O'Mera, Briggs; Tonks, Chapman, Dickens, Dooler, Rice, Seal. Subs: Darley, Bailey, Jowitt, Molyneux.

Penalties conceded: Leigh 10, Rovers 9.

Handling errors: Leigh 11, Rovers 10.

Referee: Ashley Klein (London).

Attendance: 2073.

Man

rIT was Pat's day again. Pat Weisner just gets better and better. What a little gem Leigh have unearthed.

Magic

rTHAT opening salvo of four tries in the first 15 minutes. Rovers were blown out of the water and there was no way back.

Moan

rJUST over 2000 for a game between first and third isn't good enough. Top of the league, playing top quality stuff - the stayaways don't know what they're missing.