Tigers tame the Young Bucks

Rossendale Captain, Tyler Johnson, had the option of whether to kick off or receive and chose the latter with a view to winning possession and putting on some early pressure. Although the initial part of the plan went well the local lads were soon robbed of the ball and it was Leigh who got on the front foot. They moved the ball effectively across their back line and despite fierce tackling from Nathan Waddington & Rowan Hopkinson soon created an opening on the left, their wing was in the clear to score but for a last ditch tackle from Joe Bedlow who first held up the ball and then bundled his opponent over the dead ball line.

This proved only a brief respite for Rossendale as the visitors took possession from the 22 drop out, launching another attack, on this occasion being rewarded with a try as their big forwards crashed through the Rossendale defence.

From the kick off Leigh threatened again but poor handling let them down just as they had made space on the right wing. The scrum for Rossendale was lost against the head and this time Leigh made no mistake touching down in the left corner for their second try.

Leigh had their heads up and were keen to get some more points on the board. Dogged defence kept them at bay, Elliott Newall, Joe Bedlow and Joe Starkie kept plugging the gaps with determined tackling until the visitors finally relinquished possession. The loose ball was picked up by Jack Whittaker, who's skilful footwork took him past Leigh's first line of defence, who then as he was tackled, looked to offload. Rossendale's scrum half Bradley Watts, playing his first game for the Marl Pits side , was in close support to receive the pass, he cleverly drew his man before offering a well timed pass to Joe Bedlow who weaved and sprinted the final 20m, shrugging off tackles, to score under the posts. Rowan Hopkinson then converted to get the full 7 points and put the home side back in the game.

Following the kick off Rossendale forced their way into Leigh's half, Taite Johnstone, playing only his second game, showed good handling skills and made some impressive runs on the wing. Leigh finally regained possession and ran in a try from just inside their own 22, to make the half time score 15-7 in their favour.

Rossendale kicked off to start the second half but soon found themselves under pressure conceding a 4th try. The Rossendale forwards battled hard to try to gain some parity with their visitors, Reece Howarth was outstanding in competing for the ball, making the most of any possession that came his way, Leigh were loathe to give much away however and maintained their upper hand pushing Rossendale hard eventually running in 2 more try's to make the final score 7-30 for the visitors.

Rossendale man of the match was Jack Whittaker.
Back of the match was Taite Johnstone.
Forward of the match was Reece Howarth.