Leigh win the V1 derby

It was the day that both Glenn Stevens in the forwards and Rob Drake in the backs dominated play with telling tackles and passing at pace, splitting a resilient Tyldesley defence to allow the home side the spoils.

In essence, the Leigh forwards won enough possession and the backs made good use of it. Leigh looked happier on the heavy pitch but conceding the high number penalties could have cost them dearly.

It was also a day that two older heads returned to the Leigh team with Dave Woods steadying the ship behind the breakdowns and Calvin Crompton reproducing his trade mark carries.

First blood went to Tyldesley as stalwart stand off Mark Dickinson put a short grubber kick through Leighs defence, collected the ball, and went over for the first points of the game after 5 minutes.

Leigh were quick to come back with a miss pass from Dave Woods to find Tom Worthington who kicked through and just beat both the Tyldesley defender and his team mate Jonny Drake to touch down.

With the game finely poised at 7-7 a minor skirmish broke out that saw the Tyldesley centre spend 10 minutes off the field
Leigh took this opportunity to exploit the gap that had been created and after moving the ball across the line Jonny Drake went over unopposed.

Five minutes later Leigh again exploited the gap made by the absence of the centre and Kieron Duffy went in unopposed at the corner. 19-7

Again, as Tyldesley struggled to recover from the two quick tries, Calvin Crompton carried forward with the ball recycled to Glenn Stevens, who promptly ran at the inside centre position and added another five points to bring the score to 26-7 and present Leigh with a bonus point.

Two minutes into the second half Leigh were penalised again and the resulting lineout lead to a catch and drive to give Tyldesley hope of a comeback at 26-14

The mounting penalty count was taking its toll on Leigh as Tyldesley had a period of attacking pressure but could not break the Leigh line.

When Leigh regained the ball, the acceleration of the backs and speed of movement surprised the opposition but great cover tackling prevented Leigh from scoring again.

A good game to watch with the bonus point win well deserved by the hosts.

Full time 26-14

Leigh v Tyldesley - Full Match Video.

Thanks to Terry Gorman for the video.