Turley reaches half-century

WITH an impeccable sense of timing, Leigh showed why they are the stand-out team in the NFP and why Neil Turley can't be too far away from international recognition.

As Great Britain coach David Waite watched appreciatively from the stands, the Centurions bounced back from their hiccup at Rochdale to take Rovers to the cleaners after half time.

And leading the rout was try-hungry full-back Neil Turley who took his season's tally to 50 - breaking the previous club record of 49 set by Aussie centre Steve Halliwell in 1985-86.

After a couple of tryless games, Turley turned it on in front of the national coach. He touched down once in the first half and crossed for four more in the second to add another statistic to his phenomenal season. He's scored six in a game once, now has two fives as well as one four and four hat-tricks.

Coupled with his performance for Lancashire against Yorkshire, the name of Turley will be in Waite's little black book of international possibles.

And the genial Aussie is too shrewd not to have noted the exceptional form of Dave Bradbury and John Hamilton.

Bradbury is consistently producing some of the best football of his life while Hamilton, now the only recognised hooker after injuries to John Duffy and Martin Roden, is thriving on the responsibility and showing the sort of form that convinced Leigh he was the ideal replacement for Mick Higham.

With Simon Svabic back to something approaching his best form, Leigh gave a display - especially in the second half - that oozed quality and class. And all this against a major contender for a top four place.

The horrors of Rochdale were quickly been forgotten as the 'real' Leigh stood up to be counted.

Yet in the first 40 minutes there was no indication of how one-sided the match would turn out.

Rovers' star turn, scrum-half Jamie Rooney, gave glimpses of his blossoming talent, especially with his radar-accurate kicking that punished every Leigh indiscretion.

Two Rooney penalties in quick succession had Rovers 4-0 up in the opening 17 minutes but it had been Leigh who had forced the pace with Bradbury twice going close and Michael Watts brilliantly trapping Matt Bramald in-goal from Paul Anderson's nicely weighted grubber.

Leigh's kicking game showed a marked improvement on recent weeks and from one perfectly executed move they took the lead. Svabic's reverse cross-kick caused panic in the Rovers' ranks, full-back Michael Rhodes ending up knocking the ball over his own line to lay the first of Turley's tries on a plate.

Svabic landed the first of six successful kicks and moments after added a penalty on his way to passing the 300 points mark for the season.

When Andy Fairclough went a touch high on Gavin Swinson, Rooney pegged Leigh back to 8-4. When Rooney was taken out late by Anderson, referee Steve Ganson put the incident on report, sin-binned the Leigh centre and then watched Rooney quickly regain his senses and thump over the penalty that locked the teams at 8-8.

Right on the stroke of half time Simon Baldwin was pulled up for a foul in the tackle and Rooney made Leigh pay with his fifth penalty of the half to give Rovers a 10-8 advantage.

It took Leigh less than 90 seconds to regain the lead and start 40 minutes of almost total domination.

In their first set of the half, Leigh went from their own 20-metre line to the shadow of the Rovers' posts when Fairclough's lunge for the line gave Turley the chance to show some nimble footwork and burst over from 10 metres.

Rooney closed the gap to 14-11 with a 47th minute field goal but when loose-forward Paul Darley hit Tim Street a touch high, Leigh put on a tap penalty move that saw the increasingly influential Hamilton send Turley sprinting clear for his hat-trick try.

Leigh's only blemish in the second half was when David Ingram lost possession and gave Rovers good field position. They didn't waste it. Sub Gavin Morgan steamed onto a short ball and went in at the side of the posts despite Turley almost turning the prop before he'd got the ball down. Rooney converted and Leigh's lead had been cut to three points.

But in the final quarter Leigh really started to cut loose and should have had more tries than the three they did post.

Turley's record-equalling try came on the hour thanks to Fairclough's long break up the left and unselfish inside ball. Four minutes later Hamilton's speed and strength out of dummy half found another hole and sub Jason Johnson finished off from 20 metres.

Leigh put more daylight between themselves and Rovers when a simple runaround between Andy Leathem and Turley created the opening for the full-back to glide away for try number five and his half-century before adding the final goal himself.

LEIGH: Turley; Hadcroft, Anderson, Fairclough, Watts; Svabic, Bretherton; Leathem, Hamilton, Bradbury, Baldwin, Morley, Bristow. Subs: Street (for Leathem 26), Ingram (for Watts 26 BB, BBR 57), Johnson (for Morley 57), Norman (for Bradbury 33), Leathem (for Norman 57), Bradbury (for Street 66); Ingram (for Svabic 69).

FEATHERSTONE: Rhodes; Stokes, Swinson, Spurr, Bramald; Bastow, Rooney; Dickens, Chapman, Lord, Halliwell, Lowe, Darley. Subs: Jackson (for Bastow HT), Dooler (for Swinson 59), Williamson (for Dickens 52), Morgan (for Lord 25), Lord (for Williamson 71).

SCORERS: Leigh - Tries: Turley 5, Johnson. Gls: Svabic 6, Turley. Featherstone - Try: Morgan. Gls: Rooney 6, fg Rooney.

PENALTIES AWARDED: Leigh 10, Featherstone 9.

SCRUMS WON: Leigh 8, Featherstone 7.

SIN-BINNED: Anderson - Leigh (late tackle).

REFEREE: Steve Ganson (St Helens).

ATTENDANCE: 2842.