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| Leigh (22) 34 |
| Tries: Briscoe, Ipape, Chamberlain, Charnley, penalty try, Mulhern Goals: Reynolds 5 |
| Hull KR (0) 4 |
| Tries: Lewis |
Brilliant Leigh Leopards overpowered Hull KR to take second place in the Super League table.
The Leopards’ Pacific Islands quintet laid the platform for the emphatic win, putting the lacklustre Humberside outfit on the back-foot throughout.
Tries from Tom Briscoe, Edwin Ipape, Ed Chamberlain and Josh Charnley had Leigh in charge by half time.
Ricky Lautele forced a penalty try and Robbie Mulhern powered over, with Mikey Lewis running in a late consolation.
The in-form new boys scored six tries as they proved too quick, powerful and slick for the rattled Robins, who are now seventh in the table.
The Robins set the tone for their dreadful evening by kicking the ball out on the full from the kick-off, and then had Lewis sin-binned for a silly sliding challenge on Tom Briscoe just four minutes in.
Leigh did not need any more encouragement as they continued to live up to chairman Derek Beaumont’s bold pre-season claim that they are a play-off team.
Briscoe ended a typically slick Leigh move to open the scoring and Ipape powered over from a sharp pass by Leopards’ mastermind Lachlan Lam.
Leigh were sloppy in difficult conditions, but made light of the slippery ball and sodden surface as Chamberlain broke two tackles from Lam’s pass to go over.
Leigh’s Pacific Islands quintet of Lam, Ipape, Tom Amone, Ricky Leutele and John Asiata were uncontainable at times but the Robins did not help themselves.
On-loan fullback Tanguy Zenon inexplicably allowed Ben Reynolds’ excellent 40-20 kick to roll out of play and, from the ensuing attack, Leigh switched the ball quickly and Josh Charnley notched his 20th Super League try of the season.
The visitors continued to struggle after the break as Lautele kicked through and was hauled down by Matt Parcell as he was poised to chase the ball, for a penalty try award.
Robbie Mulhern rampaged over to put the icing on it for Leigh and Lewis gave the visiting fans something to cheer on a miserable night for the Humbersiders.
Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam told BBC Radio Manchester:
“I’m really pleased and proud for the team, town and everyone involved. We’ve been working hard to get into this position so we’ve just got to hold onto it now.
“The first half was outstanding and as good as it’s been this year. Going in [at half-time] 22 points up in these condition was what we needed.
“Our big players stood up and got the job done.
“We just wanted to see a response from last week from the group. It was a challenge to everyone involved and I thought they responded really well.”
Hull KR boss Willie Peters told BBC Radio Humberside:
“It started from kicking out on the full from the kick-off and then the sin bin and it snowballed off the back of that and that was pretty much it.
“It was a disappointing night, there’s no doubt about that, and it started straight from the kick-off.
“When we got back to 16-0 we had a little period where we started putting some sets together and we might have had had a chance but pretty much we were chasing our tails and then they scored before half-time which hurt us significantly.
“The start hurt us significantly and we lost he ruck. They beat us in every area tonight and that was from the start.”
Leigh: O’Brien, Briscoe, Hardaker, Leutele, Charnley, Reynolds, Lam, Mulhern, Ipape, Amone, Chamberlain, Holmes, Asiata
Interchanges: Hughes, Nakubuwai, Mellor, Norman (Davis)
Hull KR: Zenon, Yaha, Opacic, Kenny-Dowall, R. Hall, Lewis, Milnes, Luckley, Litten, King, Hadley, Linnett, Minchella
Interchanges: Parcell, Kennedy, Storton, Aydin (C. Hall)
Referee: Marcus Griffiths.
