Tide turns at Hand Lane

After the incessant rain of the past few weeks, it really was touch and go as to whether this, foot of the Table, clash would go ahead or not. However, thanks to a lot of hard work on the pitch during the week, plus some more on Saturday morning, the pitch was eventually declared fit at 10 a.m.

Given these conditions, the game was never going to be a free flowing spectacle and given the importance of the result to both teams, neither side were going to take any uncalculated risks. We were in for a good, old fashioned, game of Rugby Union and we were not to be disappointed.

Both sides stuck to the basics, driving the ball up well and kicking the corners. Very few mistakes were made by either side and the only points on the scoreboard, at half time, came from the boot of Leigh’s Elliott Ryan, who successfully converted a penalty after 35 minutes.

The second half continued in a similar vein, with neither side wanting to make any mistakes and very little was given away.

Carlisle levelled the scores on 60 minutes through a penalty but Leigh pulled away again through two more Elliott Ryan penalties on 70 and 75 minutes.

With only two minutes to go, Leigh won a lineout, five metres out from the Carlisle line and from the resulting maul, Chris Boyle forced his way over for a well worked try. Elliott Ryan slotted the difficult conversion from wide out to deny Carlisle a losing bonus point.

This was another good, rock solid performance from the Leigh squad who are resolute in their goal of remaining in this highly competitive League.

Next week, Leigh travel away to face 10th placed Blackburn in another ‘must win’ encounter.