Impressive Leigh recover to hit 50

STILL smarting from their first half horror show at Featherstone the previous week, the Centurions got back on track with a 10-try demolition of the Cougars running up a half century of points writes Mike Hulme

Leigh had far too much pace and power for an enthusiastic Keighley side that had pushed title contenders Hull KR and Rochdale close in recent weeks.

In the end, Leigh won comfortably enough but they had another nightmare start by knocking on from the kick off, losing influential hooker Paul Rowley with a head injury inside three minutes, and finding themselves 6-0 down after just four.

"That was the wake-up call we needed," said coach Paul Terzis. "We didn't start too hot but we backed our skills in attack it it came off for us."

Leigh were soon in their stride, Adam Bristow sent Simon Svabic over and moments later second rower Simon Baldwin crashed in for another. Svabic landed the first two of six successive kicks at goal on his way to a 20 points haul as a replacement for the injured Neil Turley.

Leigh didn't quite have it their own way in the first half and the Cougars hit back with a Matt Steel try to close the gap to 12-10.

But unfortunately for the Cougars, that was as close as they ever got and by half time Leigh had opened up a 24-10 lead with Baldwin's second try and another from his second row partner Chris Morley.

Leigh effectively put the game to bed five minutes into the second half when Paul Anderson crossed to put the result beyond the Cougars' grasp.

It became one-way traffic as Leigh went through their full repertoire of attacking skills.

Anderson and Svabic both added to their first half tries while Andy Isherwood, operating at centre for the first time, showed his eye for a gap by collecting two touchdowns. Mark McCully was Leigh's other scorer.

The Cougars did have the satisfaction of scoring the most spectacular try of the game in the dying minutes, Oli Marns racing 100 metres after collecting and loose ball behind his own line.