08 August 2014

Leigh showed respect for the visitor's defence taking the kick from a penalty in the opening five minutes. Moments later they extended the lead, bringing the ball wide to the left, where Liam Kay made full use of the supporting run from Kyle Armstrong on his inside. The Rovers response almost came with quarter of an hour gone, but Will Sharp was ruled out in touch in the corner. This inability to be clinical was then punished, when the Centurions scored a quick double through Penkywicz and then Armstrong following slips on the wet grass from Lockwood and Hardman respectively. With the squad already depleted, Rovers suffered early injuries to Kyle Trout, and his replacement Matty Dale, and the loss of the pair meant they were likely to struggle later in the game as the remaining forwards tired through lack of interchange options. This did not prevent a Rovers fight back though: Entrenched on the opposition line they appeared to have tried everything when Andy Ellis displayed his genius, exploiting a gap which nobody else in the stadium had seen. The determined effort continued, this time with Jason Crookes forcing his way over from acting halfback. The Centurions did add two points to the scoreboard however, receiving a penalty and electing to kick once more on the stroke of halftime.

Leigh restarted the contest in dominant position mood, with Armstrong completing his hatrick inside five minutes, but Featherstone regained a foothold in the game once again, as Moore gave a clever dummy to slice through the line and draw the full back to send Worthington over. With only a ten point deficit, the wind was now in the Rovers sails as they brought the ball out to the right with the opposition defence stretched, but the tide turned as Andy Kain's pass was intercepted and the Leythers sprung an attack. This lead to probably the most disappointing try of the game, as Barlow went over at first receiver from just five metres out, and Ridyard followed up his conversion with a third penalty goal five minutes later.

Rooney entered the fray with twenty minutes remaining. His first touch of the ball almost brought a try as his spiralling kick was fumbled in front of the Leigh posts, but Bussey was unable to gather cleanly with the line begging. That was Rovers' last chance of salvaging anything from the game, and things continued to go from bad to worse as both Moore and Hardman were sent to the bin following numerous brawls between the two sides. Leigh also ran in a further two tries. First Acton from a Barlow offload and then Higson performed a diving catch in the final minute of the game, completing Rovers' biggest defeat of the season.