So near but yet so far – again!

Leigh travelled yesterday to Bowdon on the back of yet another narrow defeat last week at the hands of Widnes.

Leigh’s ranks were bolstered by the welcome return of Calvin Crompton to the pack, his extra bulk and carrying abilities are legendary and he did not disappoint yesterday when he entered into the fray.

The weather conditions, again, were wet and windy and that set the tone for the style of play that was to dominate proceedings, it was not bound to be a day for pretty running rugby.

Bowdon took the lead, after ten minutes, through an unconverted try wide out on the right and added two further penalties to their tally to take the sides off at the break with Bowdon leading by eleven points to nil.

Leigh came out of the blocks well in the second half and an early line out steal by Calvin Crompton resulted in a well worked try, from the ensuing driving maul, for the hardworking young flanker, Charlie Wood. Rob Drake brilliantly added the conversion to narrow the Leigh deficit to four points.

A breakaway try by Bowdon on sixty-five minutes extended the gap to nine points with fifteen minutes to play.

The final fifteen minutes was all about Leigh attacking and Bowdon scrambling in defence.

Rob Drake slotted a long-range penalty on the seventy third minute to bring Leigh within six points of Bowdon.

The Leigh dominance of this last period was very impressive and they threatened the Bowdon line on numerous occasions in their quest for a converted try which would have given them a well deserved victory.

The Leigh supporters were all of the opinion that Chris Boyle had got the ball down for what would have been the decisive score in the seventy ninth minute but unfortunately, the referee was unsighted and consequently disallowed the score. So near but yet so far……. again! Another losing bonus point match instead.

Final score Bowdon 16 Leigh 10.

Another creditworthy performance from this very inexperienced young squad but they are coming together well and will soon become a force to be reckoned with.

Next week, Leigh entertain bottom placed Manchester Medics at Hand Lane. Please note kick off times will now be 2:15 p.m. until the end of February 2018.