Leigh brush London aside in dominant display
Leigh comfortably beat Championship rivals London to claim their seventh win on the spin and progress through to the sixth round of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup.
Kieron Purtill made one change to his Leigh side that won at Sheffield Eagles last week. New recruit Ryan Bailey came off the bench to make his debut and replaced Kyle Lovett.
London coach Danny Ward made three changes to his team that won at Rochdale Hornets last time out. Matty Fleming, Matt Gee and Rob Butler came in for Ben Hellewell, Will Lovell and Daniel Hindmarsh.
It was an intense start to the game at the Leigh Sports Village, with both sides showing good attacking shape. Leigh broke the deadlock in the 18thminute through Matty Dawson-Jones after having a couple of repeat sets. Ben Reynolds failed to convert, but Leigh were 4-0 up.
The Centurions scored their second straight from the restart. London failed to deal with a high kick from Reynolds and the ball fell into the arms of Liam Hood who glided over. The conversion was good, Leigh 10-0 London.
London were caught off guard again as Leigh scored from the restart. Craig Hall made a fine break down the left side and the ball went through several pairs of hands before it returned to Hall who scored. Reynolds added the conversion to put his side 16-0 in front after 23 minutes.
The hosts were in fine form in the first half. Hall took on the line and got a superb offload away to Jack Owens who raced over out wide. Reynolds converted to put Leigh in a comfortable 22-0 lead at the break.
Kieron Purtill’s side continued their good form in the second half. Ben Crooks darted through a gap in the London defence to score from 30 metres out. The conversion from Reynolds was on point and Leigh led 28-0 after 48 minutes.
Crooks got his second just a couple of sets later following a nice pass from Bodene Thompson. Reynolds converted and Leigh were 34-0 ahead.
Nathan Mason made a brilliant break in the latter stages of the game to assist the supporting Harrison Hansen who scored. Reynolds converted to seal a very impressive 40-0 victory over London in the fifth round of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup.
Leigh: Mata’utia; Dawson-Jones, Crooks, Hall, Owens; Reynolds, Hutchison; Mason, Hood, Acton, Hansen, B Thompson, J Thompson. Subs: Higham, Richards, Bailey, Larroyer.
London: Dixon; Kear, Channing, Fleming, Williams; Pewhairangi, Meadows; Spencer, Sammut, Battye, Pitts, Gee, M Davis. Subs: S Davis, Bienek, Adebiyi, Butler.
Starman: Ben Reynolds was great for Leigh. He set up a couple of tries and his kicking game was spot on.
Attendance: 2,507