Leigh fall short against Salford on their return to Super League

Leigh Leopards were outclassed in difficult conditions by their rivals Salford Red Devils.

The Red Devils left Leigh Sports Village with a round one victory and two points, following a 20-10 score line. Leigh were resilient and determined, but simply not good enough to beat a mature Salford side full of talent.

Try’s from Kallum Watkins, Andy Ackers and Ryan Brierley, were enough to keep Salford in comfortable control of the game. They were far from perfect, but made fewer errors and capitalized on their chances.

Off the field, Leigh certainly did pull out all the stops to make their Super League return memorable. There was a terrific performance from the band ‘Scouting for Girls’, before the displays took to the pitch. First up was a terrifying but superb fire show, which was then followed by a dance performance and a firework display. Plenty of action had happened before the match had even started.

The biggest roar of the night still came when the two sides entered the field. The stages and displays were put away, and the rugby began, as the rain started to drizzle down onto the greasy surface. As predicted, it was a nervy start to the match for both sides, with the weather not helping matters. There was plenty of handling errors and a hatful of penalties, nobody could grab the game by the scruff of the neck.

Nevertheless, Leigh’s main man in the halves Lachlan Lam was keen to show the Super League his qualities, and having just forced a goal line drop out minutes before, he saw his chance to impress on the 21^st minute mark.

His side had created an overlap that fell right into his hands, allowing him to throw a long looping cut-out pass to his winger Josh Charnley, who was in acres of space. Charnley made no mistake touching down in the corner to kickstart Leigh’s campaign, and kickstart their new era.

On the half-hour mark tempers flared for the first time between the two rivals, when Lam took exception to a tackle that saw him dragged off the pitch. It looked like Salford were riling the Leopards up, and if that was their intention, it worked.

Salford begun to control the game, dominating possession and field position, whilst testing Leigh’s defence. A test they failed twice before the half-time whistle.

In the 34^th minute, on the back of a few tackles on Leigh’s try line, the lethal Brodie Croft decided it was his turn to engage the defence. Running at them with pace before a last minute short pass to his right, that put Kallum Watkins through and over the line basically un-touched.

Four minutes later they found themselves back on Leigh’s try line. This time it was their hooker, Andy Ackers, who sprung from dummy half and caught the defence napping to push his way over the line for his second try. Marc Sneyd’s two successful conversion attempts to Zak Hardaker’s missed attempt for Leigh, left the hosts trailing by 4-12 at half-time.

Leigh started the second half well, showcasing a lot of hard work and determination. However, with the rain picking up, the errors and mistakes just kept on creeping in. It was Salford who scored first in the second half following a horrible handling error from Josh Charnley, but against the run of play.

Salford were in the mood to punish. Once again it was Croft running at the defence which caused panic through the ranks, before opening up a huge gap. Salford’s ruthless attack came with the support play from Ryan Brierley, who flew over the try line untouched in the 50^th minute.

Salford spent 10 minutes of the match with 12 players on the pitch after Sneyd was shown a yellow card for a professional foul in the 55^th minute. Charnley broke down the left hand side for Leigh before being pulled up five metres short of line, courtesy of an excellent cover tackle by Brierley. It looked like Charnley would get up and take a quick play the ball, but Sneyd would not let this happen, and was shown his marching orders.

Playing with a man extra man Leigh looked to take full advantage. In the 59^th minute Jack Hughes went barrelling after a grubber kick into the in-goal area, but before he could get near the ball he was brutally cut down by Kallum Watkins’ shoulder. After a quick review by the video referee, a penalty try was awarded to the Leopards.

When Sneyd returned to the field, and Leigh had no advantage, it was clear well before the final whistle that the game was over. Salford’s mature display of finishing their sets and kicking downfield was suffocating Leigh into making silly errors. The Leopards showed excellent spirit all game and you couldn’t fault their work ethic. Nevertheless, they just didn’t have the same spark in attack that Salford did.

The full-time hooter sounded just as Sneyd was slotting his fourth conversion of the day over for Salford, this time it came in the form of a penalty that was conceded right in front of the sticks. Salford opted to go for goal to add an extra two points to their points difference, leaving the final score as: Leigh Leopards 10-20 Salford Red Devils.

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