Super League Champions St Helens defeat relegated Leigh Centurions in Alex Walmsley’s Testimonial as new season preperations intensify

St Helens’ prop Alex Walmsley took the win in his Testimonial match as Saints defeated Championship outfit Leigh Centurions 16-6 at the Totally Wicked Stadium in a pre-season friendly.

Having picked up a third consecutive Grand Final victory in October, many may have expected Kristian Woolf’s side to breeze past a Leigh team that was relegated from the top division last season having picked up just two wins.

That was not to be the case as a new look Centurions outfit, led by a new management team of Adrian Lam, Tony Clubb and Chris Chester, put on a positive showing ahead of their Betfred Championship season opener against Whitehaven this coming Sunday.

Early on, Walmsley broke forward for the Saints but was dragged down by Tom Amone, one of eight new signings in the starting lineup for Leigh, while the visitors were able to offer a threat at the other end with Joe Mellor’s boot causing problems.

Good teams always find a way through and St Helens did just that. Tommy Makinson scored the only try of the first half as the Saints held a 4-0 lead at the half-time interval.

Josh Simm doubled his side’s advantage as he crashed over almost immediately after the restart. Lewis Dodd, who failed to add an extra two points after Makinson’s try, was more successful this time around and put the Saints 10-0 in front.

Leigh thought they had a try back shortly after as another new signing in Kieran Dixon crossed the try line, but the touch judge decided that he had been forced out by Makinson before getting the ball down.

Nonetheless, Lam’s side continued to push for a route back into the game and applied all of the pressure onto the Saints who were uncharacteristically lethargic at points.

14 minutes from time, Joe Wardle did manage to get some points on the board for the Centurions with Ben Reynolds converting successfully to take them to within four points and set up a nervy ending for St Helens.

However, the Saints found a way to edge further ahead with summer signing James Bell scoring against his former club with around three minutes remaining.

Those four points essentially sealed the victory, but the man for whom all were there to see, Walmsley, was allowed to take the kick and earned his team a further two points to round off the pre-season friendly.

Despite the 16-6 scoreline, there may well be more positives to take from the 80 minutes of action for Leigh than Saints despite the result.

Woolf’s side have work to do if they are to challenge for a record fourth consecutive title this campaign. They start their Super League season on February 10th at home to last season’s League Leaders’ Shield winners and defeated Grand Finalists, Catalans Dragons.

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