Leigh Centurions settle back into life in the Championship cruising to a 50-4 win over Whitehaven on the opening day of the season

New signing Nene Macdonald grabbed a hat-trick of tries as Leigh Centurions ran riot on the opening day of the Betfred Championship season beating Whitehaven 50-4.

Relegated down from the Super League last season, the Leythers are one of the favourites to earn promotion and showed why with a dominant performance at the Leigh Sports Village, running in nine tries in total.

One of 10 debutants on the day for Leigh, centre Macdonald caused problems for Whitehaven all afternoon and enjoyed a good link-up down the left with fellow debutant Kieran Dixon.

It was there where the first try came from, with Macdonald crashing over after teammate Keanan Brand had gone close early on during a two-minute applause for ex-Leigh player and Rugby League great Des Drummond, who passed away yesterday aged 63.

Dixon got in on the act soon after with Macdonald turning provider this time around, and when Caleb Aekins got on the scoresheet midway through the first half, Haven must have feared the worst.

Similarly to Dixon and Macdonald, Brand and Tom Nisbet were linking up well for the hosts on the opposite side. Brand is one of the few players who have remained at the club from last season and he finished off a breakaway for Leigh’s fourth try of the afternoon.

Rarely did Whitehaven prove to be an attacking threat throughout, but when needed, bodies were on hand to prevent Will Evans from breaking away after Aekins had spilled the ball.

At 22-0 down, the last thing a part-time Haven team needed when up against full-time opposition was to lose any players. However, they did just that and did it in some style as within three minutes, the visitors managed to have three players sent to the sin-bin by referee James Child.

Centre Jake Moore and winger Andrew Bulman went within 60 seconds of one another, presumably for dissent, before Callum Phillips made a high shot on an opponent in the build-up to another Leigh try, seeing yellow after the half-time hooter.

St Helens loanee Nisbet was the scorer of the try amongst all the pandemonium which ensued and Ben Reynolds converted to make it 28-0 at the interval.

With those three quickfire sin-bins, the Marras started the second half with 10-men, and just over 60 seconds later, they paid for it as Macdonald grabbed his second then completed his hat-trick minutes later.

When they did eventually get back to a full complement of 13, Haven gave their travelling supporters something to cheer about with Evans earning them four points as he crashed over, but that was as good as it got. Alex Bishop could not convert from out wide so the score remained 38-4.

12 more points were to come the way of Leigh before the game was out though, with Mark Ioane earning four of them off the bench as he made an instant impact by powering past his opposite number on top of the line.

Likewise, Nisbet will soon become a fan favourite if he keeps his try-scoring ability up during his time at the Leigh Sports Village. He grabbed his second and the Centurions’ ninth of the day 10 minutes from time.

Tougher tests will follow for Leigh, starting away at promotion-rivals Featherstone a week tomorrow. As far as getting off the starting blocks though, they could not have asked for much better.

As for Whitehaven, their season will not be determined by games against opponents like Leigh, and despite the scoreline, they gave their all throughout the 80 minutes with some resolute defending on show at times.

The ‘Marras’ have their first home game of the season next Sunday as they welcome fellow Cumbrian side Barrow Raiders.

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