Dewsbury Rams 48

Leigh Miners Rangers 10 LEIGH Miners Rangers ran into a one-man points-machine as their Silk Cut Challenge Cup dreams disappeared at Ram Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Rams scrum-half Barry Eaton beat the Miners virtually on his own with a dazzling 28-point exhibition from three tries and eight goals.

Eaton was the undisputed man of the match and it was the Miners' misfortune to have had such an unkind draw at the home of the reigning Premiership champions.

For there was enough evidence to suggest that, if they had been pitted against one of the lesser professional sides, the Miners might have gone close to repeating their shock defeat of Bramley at the same stage two years ago.

The Miners emerged from this game with plenty of credit and certainly gave their noisy band of supporters plenty to cheer for a gutsy defensive effort and two fine tries.

In the forwards Tommy Goulding, Chris Flynn and Steve Flannery put in big tackling stints and none of the Miners players let their heads drop even when the Rams threatened to run away with things in the second half.

Eaton gave the Miners a taste of things to come when he sliced over for the opening try in the ninth minute and, when Dave Mycoe followed suit five minutes later, the Miners looked in for a hard afternoon. But they responded with a fine try, created by Scott Hilton's raking kick that Mark Hudspith touched down, with Hudspith adding the conversion. The Miners then restricted the Rams to just one further try in the first half, a close range effort by Andrew Spink, and trailed only 6-18 at the interval.

But Dewsbury soon moved clear when Adrian Flynn and Richard Baker touched down within eight minutes of the resumption and that man Eaton went in for his second try on the hour after some close-range trickery.

Experienced prop Andy Fisher brushed the Miners defence aside for another try and Eaton completed his hat-trick in injury time after kicking ahead a loose ball 40-metres out.

But the Miners had the consolation of scoring the try of the game when winger Steve Clark latched onto Sean Phoenix's pass and showed a clean pair of heels to the home defence for a 50-metre effort three minutes from the end of an excellently contested cup-tie.

DEWSBURY: Graham; Godfrey, Potter, Flynn, Baker; Cain, Eaton; Fisher, Mycoe, Williams, Richardson, A Spink, K Spink. Subs (all played) Tallon, Wood, McDonald, Hicks.

LEIGH MINERS: Irwin; Shepherd, Hudspith, Sarsfield, Clark; Warburton, Hilton; D Flannery, Stott, Light, Flynn, S Flannery, Goulding. Subs (all played) Phoenix, Coleman, Lomax, Waterworth.

Referee: Nick Oddy (Halifax).

Attendance: 1,260.