Leigh show early promise with a 36-15 away win

LEIGH SHOW EARLY PROMISE

The Leigh first 15 along with their enthusiastic supporters travelled into unknown territory when they visited Upper Eden.
This was the opening League match and the objective for Leigh was to put a marker down for the season.
A re-shuffled side caused by player unavailability saw Dyson move to centre and his spot taken by debutante Olly Shepherd.

The early exchanges saw the Leigh forwards exert strong pressure on the home team, strong scrummaging and powerful runs putting Upper Eden on the back foot, Leigh then found the boot on the other foot when a sustained attack by the home team, with their prominent No 6 to the fore, battering the Leigh line.
Strong tackling with Dyson leading the way kept the Leigh line intact, however, a penalty by the home stand-off resulted in their gaining a 3 point lead.
This was quickly nullified when a sublime 40 metre break by Olly Shepherd saw him put supporting full back Wilkinson over the line, Drake converting. Leigh continued to attack the home line and only some poor decision making stopped them from piling on the points. The Eden defence finally cracked when Robinson crashed over and Drake added the extras.

On the stroke of half time Leigh skipper Wood put Leigh 17 - 3 up with a converted try.

Second half saw Leigh come out of the traps like a house on fire, fast hands and straight running ended when Drake floated a long pass to the ever supporting Wilkinson resulting in a further converted try.
From the re-start the Leigh backs passed the ball at speed, the smallest of cracks appeared in the home defence which saw Robinson gallop 40 metres to put the game to bed with another 7 pointer.

The Icing was put on the cake when Leigh's wing forward Morgan added a bonus point with a final try.
A deliberate knock on by prop forward Jack Burdon gave the excellent referee no choice but to hand out the only yellow card of the game. Upper Eden then put on a powerful last 10 minutes adding 2 tries, one of which was converted to make the final score 36 points to 15.

Outstanding for Leigh were No8 Robinson and stand off Drake. Prominent debuts were made by former colts Everitt, Burdon and Olly Shepherd.

Derek Leake Snr. Press Officer