Five try, bonus point win, puts Leigh into 4th place.

Leigh entertained De La Salle, from Salford, yesterday at Hand Lane and everyone knew that it would be a hard day at the office. It was but they came away victorious, in what was an excellent game of rugby.

Early pressure from De La Salle earned them a penalty, under the Leigh sticks, in the fifth minute, which they converted but a Rob Drake penalty, in the eighth minute, soon cancelled that out.

Leigh then exerted a lot of pressure, in the De La Salle 22 and Eliot Liku put them in front again when he picked up and drove over the line, from a five-metre scrum, to score a well taken try, which Rob Drake duly converted.

Another penalty by Rob Drake took the sides off, at half time, with Leigh leading by thirteen points to three.

Leigh were soon to extend their lead, at the start of the second half and the try that they scored must go down as a serious contender for ‘Try of the Season’.

Leigh fielded a loose kick by De La Salle and steadily set up a platform from which they launched an excellent attack, which culminated with Jimmy Wilkinson dotting the ball down by the corner flag following a brilliant run around involving full back, Jamie King. The handling in this passage of play was certainly a joy to watch. Rob Drake stepped up to the plate to add the extras, from near the touchline.

De La Salle, however, immediately responded with a converted try of their own, under the Leigh sticks, following a brilliant pass out of the tackle, which split the Leigh defence wide open. Then a penalty by De La Salle, in the forty eighth minute, reduced Leigh’s lead to seven points.

Leigh had to raise their game again and quick hands across the backline saw Jimmy Wilkinson draw the defence, before offloading to Jonny Drake, who skilfully grubber kicked the ball through the oncoming De La Salle defence, before following up to touch the ball down, again wide out near to the left hand touchline. Brother Rob again stepped up to convert brilliantly from a difficult angle.

At this point, Leigh appeared to be ‘on-a-roll’ and they added another try immediately afterwards. It was a wonderful ‘forwards combination’ with Chris Boyle (who was making his comeback appearance after a long lay-off) dropping off newcomer Andrew Philbin forty metres out from the De La Salle line. Andrew hit the gap well and galloped away to record an excellent finish, shaking off several ‘would be’ tacklers along the way. Rob Drake again added the extra two points.

Leigh 34 De La Salle 13.

De La Salle pulled another five points back, in the sixtieth minute, when their persistence got them over the Leigh line for a well-deserved try but it was Leigh who were to have the final say, in the seventy fifth minute.

Good approach work, by Jonny Drake, set up quick front ball for his brother Rob, to fire out a long and looping pass to Eliot Liku, who hit a magnificent line to barge his way over for his second try of the day. Grandad Joe, who sadly passed away last week, would have been proud of his performance yesterday. Rob Drake converted, once more, to take Leigh off with another bonus point win under their belts.

Final score Leigh 41 De La Salle 18.

As mentioned earlier in the report this was an excellent game of rugby, with both sides really throwing the ball around and De La Salle should be proud of the way they played yesterday, they never gave up and competed strongly right up until the final whistle.

Next week, Leigh travel away to face eighth placed Eccles, who yesterday lost away, to third placed Glossop.