Rochdale Hornets 0

By Mike Hulme Simp-Leigh the best Centurions hit summit after another points romp THE Centurions marched to the top of the Northern Ford Premiership after enjoying their second points romp in the space of four days.

Following their 70-0 demolition of Workington on Wednesday, Leigh rattled up another eight tries yesterday and gave the watching Salford City Reds' contingent plenty of food for thought ahead of next Sunday's Challenge Cup tie.

They have now scored 21 tries in two games without conceding a point and have gone three and half games without conceding a try.

It's the latter statistic that pleases coach Paul Terzis the most.

"We always fancy ourselves for scoring tries, but to zero two teams back to back is a remarkable achivement and testiment to all the hard work the squad puts in on the training paddock," he says.

Rock solid in the middle where Tim Street, Dave Whittle and Dave Bradbury were outstanding, Leigh had the craft at half-back through Simon Svabic and Liam Bretherton to exploit their extra pace on the flanks.

Despite the foul conditions of clinging mud, driving rain and a biting wind, Leigh showed all the confidence of a team that's won it's opening nine matches of the season.

Leigh were happy to play their usual expansive game in spite of the heavy going and Rochdale were already fearing the worst when Leigh rattled up 28 points inside the first half hour.

Svabic set the ball rolling with a second minute penalty but soon afterwards Steet's perfect pass sent Paul Anderson charging over for the first of his two tries.

6-0 quickly became 12-0 when Adam Bristow's break set up the position for fellow Aussie Michael Watts to score.

Rochdale could do little to prevent the avalanche of points as Whittle went in to make it 18-0 and then Neil Turley, the scorer of six tries on Wednesday, swept in for his 18th of the season before being withdrawn at half time with a slight calf strain.

Bretherton scooted in from long range for Leigh's fifth and before half time Svabic had won a kick and chase for the sixth and a 34-0 half time lead.

Leigh were restricted to just three more tries after the break, the best coming in the 51st minute from Alan Hadcroft after Leigh had broken out of their own half in spectacular fashion. Svabic landed a sixth goal from nine shots to take his points tally in the game to 16 and beyond the 100 mark for the season.

Outstanding second rower Simon Baldwin ploughed in for try number eight and four minutes from time Anderson collected his second.

Leigh: Turley; Hadcroft, Anderson, Purtill, Watts; Svabic, Bretherton; Street, Hamilton, Whittle, Baldwin, Bristow, Swann. Subs: Bradbury, Duffy, Kendrick, Norman. Attendance: 2,568.