Five try, bonus point win, at home against Southport.

Leigh entertained their good friends Southport, yesterday, at Hand Lane and it was good to welcome back their ex-player, Alex Leadbetter, playing against them in his Southport colours.

Leigh had to re-jig the side just before kick-off due to illness, injury and unavailability. Wayne McCabe and David Wood were drafted in on the bench and they both deserve a massive thanks for helping out yesterday.

Both sides set off strongly and tested each other out for the first ten minutes but it was Leigh who were to break the deadlock, when good handling got the ball out to Jonny Drake and Ollie Reffell, who combined well to put Jimmy Wilkinson into space, for him to scorch away down the right wing, to register the opening score by the corner flag, which went unconverted.

Southport regrouped and spent the next few minutes chipping away at the Leigh defence. They were eventually rewarded for their efforts, in the twenty fifth minute, when they worked the ball wide, for a converted try of their own.

Leigh bounced back immediately, when some quality front-foot possession, enabled Matty Rudd to find Eliot Liku out wide on the right with a lovely pass. Eliot in turn slipped the ball back inside, to the ever-hungry Jimmy Wilkinson, for him to scorch away for his second try of the day, which was duly converted by Matty Rudd, around the thirty-minute mark.

Leigh 12 Southport 5.

Southport picked themselves up again and after absorbing some more pressure from Leigh, they countered well and broke away through the centre, to score a converted try under the Leigh posts, in the final act of the first half, to take the sides off at half time, with the game finely poised at twelve points each.

Leigh introduced David Wood at scrum half early in the second half and his vast experience at a higher level soon made itself known. He marshalled the troops brilliantly.

Leigh upped their game in the early part of the second half and after several forays close to the Southport line managed to work the ball along the line to Jimmy Wilkinson, who used his searing pace and balance to carve his way through, for his hat trick of tries, from thirty metres out. Matty Rudd stepped up to casually add the extras.

The next fifteen minutes saw Southport throw all that they had at Leigh but Leigh’s strength and sheer determination kept them at bay. There will be several players nursing their aches and pains today following their defensive efforts yesterday.

Leigh increased their lead in the sixty fifth minute when centre, Jack Aspden, latched onto a bobbling ball forty metres out, to dummy and step his way through a stunned Southport defence, for a fine individual effort which was again dutifully converted by Matty Rudd. This fourth try earned Leigh the bonus point.

Ten minutes later, a very clever and deft kick through by David Wood was pursued by Jimmy Wilkinson, who skilfully dribbled the ball on before collecting the same, to scoot under the Southport uprights, for his fourth try of the day which was, expectedly, converted again by Matty Rudd.

Southport did not lie down and worked their way back to the Leigh end, where they deservedly got a converted try in the final act of the game, to take the sides off at the end with Leigh emerging as the worthy winners, by thirty-three points to nineteen.

This was a remarkable team effort given that just minutes before the kick-off Leigh were having to make last ditch attempts to reorganise the Squad. Every player put their body on the line yesterday for the cause and it would be hard to pick a Man of the Match but some stand out moments of note were several of Ollie Reffell’s daring and dazzling runs, Conor O’Neil’s pirouettes, several of Eliot Liku’s booming tackles, Matty Rudd’s delicate chip throughs and the sheer pace and balance of Jimmy Wilkinson in full flow – all of which helped to brighten up a somewhat dark and gloomy day at Round Ash Park.

Next week Leigh travel away to pace 10th placed Tarleton. K.O. 2.15 p.m.