Fear drives us on

Unbeaten in the Northern Ford Premiership since losing at Doncaster last June, Leigh made it 12 from 12 this season as Gateshead discovered that sheer endeavour is not enough to beat the Centurions.

Even without half a dozen front-line troops, the Centurions had far too much craft and class. They swept in for another 10 tries - passing 100 touchdowns for the season along the way - and are now more than half way to the 1000-point mark.

And there are still 16 games to play!

But after three relatively easy wins against NFP strugglers, Leigh face some of their major contenders in the next month, starting at Doncaster this week.

"It's going to be a crucial few weeks for us," says coach Paul Terzis. "We've got Doncaster, Keighley, Widnes and Dewsbury all on the horizon, but we'll be ready."

The longer Leigh's winning run goes on, the more the players want to keep it going. "The fear of losing works in our favour, not against us," Terzis says. "The players remember the feelings they had after losing at Warrington in the Challenge Cup and don't want to repeat that again in a hurry."

There was never the slightest chance that they would go through those emotions against Gateshead who, for all their effort, were outclassed all across the park.

Twelve successive previous defeats isn't the sort of form you want to be bringing to fortress Hilton Park these days and when Leigh blew them apart to score twice inside the opening four minutes, the storm clouds were gathering for the Thunder.

The only surprising thing was that Leigh only managed four first half tries. Again their biggest fault was trying to force passes that were not on. But at least it gave the opportunity for the likes of Jason Johnson, Jamie Gass and Willie Swann to stake their claims for more regular inclusion.

None of them did their prospects any harm. Johnson got on with his job efficiently, scoring one try and being involved in another; Gass used his size to soften Gateshead up down the middle and Swann was always a constant threat first at the back of the pack and later at half-back.

It was Johnson's inside pass to Dave Bradbury that set up the first try for winger Michael Watts and then Neil Turley's 60-metre dash gave Leigh the ideal field position from where Swann could drill an inch-perfect kick to the corner for Liam Bretherton to pounce for try number two. Simon Svabic added both goals, one from the left touchline, to put Leigh 12-0 ahead.

Gateshead's worst fears were confirmed when Leigh broke them for a third time in the 12th minute. Gass's clever pass to the eager Swann gave Leigh the chance to quickly spin the ball right where Johnson finished in the corner.

Many teams may have thrown the towel in at that stage, but Gateshead, to their credit, still tried to keep playing and despite several questionable high shots from one-time Hilton Park loanee Andrew Grundy, posed Leigh a problem or two.

The much-travelled Carl Briggs gave them something to think about and back rowers Richard Mervill and Darrell Derose drove in enthusiastically. It was Briggs who carved out Thunder's solitary try. His bomb to the corner was spilled by Dave Jones and Wes McGibbon picked up an easy four points.

But for all their grit and graft, Gateshead couldn't produce one line break through Leigh's defences. It was a bit different at the other end where had Leigh finished everything they created, their half time lead of 20-4 would have been doubled.

Instead they had to settle for just one more first half try, Svabic laying off neatly for Phil Kendrick to burst clean through, spin out of a couple of half-hearted tackles and crash in for the first of his hat-trick.

Leigh made far better use of the ball in the second half and consequently piled up the points.

Twice in the opening nine minutes Leigh worked moves that saw Kendrick complete a deserved treble. And it was all down to Svabic whose pass sent the back rower in for his second and then the stand-off dinked a ball over the top of the defence for Kendrick to get the scoring touch to record Leigh's 100th try of a productive season. Svabic added both goals to make it 32-4.

Swann, clearly enjoying himself, set up Leigh's next score when he burst away from the base of a scrum deep in Leigh territory, made 50 metres before handing on to the supporting Turley who finished comfortably.

Once he'd had his appetite whetted by the try, Turley went on to complete a hat-trick in just 11 minutes to take his season's tally to 27 - just seven away from equalling the British all time record for a full-back.

His second came from the boot of Svabic. In a pre-planned move on the first tackle, Svabic kicked through for Turley to score. Soon afterwards Swann repeated the trick, his reverse crosskick completely fooling the Thunder rearguard.

Leigh's final try two minutes from time was made in Oz and finished in Oz. Gass punched another hole in the Thunder midfield defences and Watts threaded his way from the left wing to finish with some style under the posts to leave Turley a simple kick.

LEIGH: Turley; Jones, Johnson, Bretherton, Watts; Svabic, Purtill; Gass, Roden, Bradbury, Kendrick, Bristow, Swann. Subs: Whittle (for Gass 29), Morley (for Purtill HT), Hamilton (for Roden 32), Ingram (for Svabic 60), Gass (for Morley 66), Roden (for Hamilton 69).

GATESHEAD: Johnson; Field, McGibbon, Hall, Williamson; Dyson, Briggs; Lister, Spence, Grundy, Mervill, Parker, Derose. Subs: Thorman (for Dyson 26). Carlton (for Lister 33), Garside (for Mervill 43), Roberts (for Grundy 52), Grundy (for Roberts 74), Lister (for Carlton 66).

SCORERS: Leigh - Tries: Kendrick (3), Turley (3), Watts (2), Bretherton, Johnson. Gls: Svabic (5), Turley.

Gateshead: Try - McGibbon.

PENALTIES AWARDED: Leigh 14, Gateshead 4.

SCRUMS: Leigh 9, Gateshead 9.

REFEREE: Graeme Shaw (Wigan).

ATTENDANCE: 2242