Excellent defence clinches well-deserved victory.

After a lot of rain again during the week, it was touch and go whether this match would go ahead but after a lot of hard work by our Grounds man on Friday, the pitch was eventually declared fit on Saturday morning.

Penrith had the better of the early exchanges with the lion’s share of the possession. However, it was Leigh who were to take the lead, through the ever trusty boot of Elliott Ryan, who slotted a penalty from just inside the Penrith half on 18 minutes – which he quickly added to, on 20 minutes, with another penalty for a further infringement by Penrith.

Penrith responded on 31 minutes, whilst Leigh were down to 14 men following a yellow card, with a well worked overlap on the left, which produced for them an unconverted try. The sides went off at the break with Leigh leading 6 – 5.

Leigh were quick to extend their lead, early in the second half, through another Elliott Ryan penalty but they also added a further five points, two minutes later, when a chip through, by Rob Drake, was collected, like Meadowlark Lemon, by Marcus Morris-Williams who, with amazing dexterity, managed to pop the ball up in the tackle for the supporting Elliott Ryan to score wide out on the right for a brilliant unconverted try. 14 -5.

Penrith then started to pile on the pressure again and were rewarded for their efforts with a penalty to narrow the gap to six points, whilst another Leigh player was spending ten minutes on the sidelines.

Leigh got their final points of the day on the board on 70 minutes, when Chris Boyle took a quick tap penalty to batter his way over the Penrith line for a try, which was again brilliantly converted, from wide out on the left, by Elliott Ryan.

The remainder of the match was all about Penrith battering the Leigh lines but dogged defence by every member of the Leigh team was able to, thankfully, keep them at bay and send them back up the M6 with no points for their unstinting efforts.

This was a brilliant display by the Leigh squad, who, with the threat of relegation now removed from their minds, were able to play with a lot more fluidity but it was their resolute defence which won this match and if they can keep that up for next week’s away game against table topping Kendal they could well cause an upset.

Two more games left, let’s go out and enjoy them.