LEIGH MINERS 30 v 20 LEIGH EAST
Leigh Miners took the local bragging rights on Saturday afternoon when they beat local rivals Leigh East 30-20 in front of a big crowd at Twist Lane for Micky Higham’s testimonial game. It was the visitors who made the perfect start to the “Street of Origin” scoring inside the opening couple of minutes, second rower Tom Fletcher diving on the loose ball to score after Miners knocked on at the back, Adam Holland converting to make it 6-0. Fletcher was in again soon after when again he capitalised on a Miners error from a kick to score on the left at the scoreboard end of the ground, Holland again adding the extras to give Leigh East a 12-0 lead. Miners hit back with two unconverted tries from Scott Travis and Scott O’Brien to make it 12-8 and found themselves in front for the first time after Leigh East let a big Scott O’Brien bomb bounce and that allowed Jimmy Muir to pounce on the loose ball and score under the posts, Jonny Youds converting to make it 14-12. The home side scored a fourth try just before the break when Scott O’Brien scored his second, O’Brien getting on the end of a neat Adam Bibey grubber kick to score out wide on the right to give Miners a 18-12 lead going into the half time interval.
The game was again tough in the second half with both teams getting stuck into each other, with it threatening to boil over early in the second half when a couple of little scuffles broke out following a trip from Miners Ellis Grimes, Grimes being sent to the sin bin for ten minutes to leave Miners a man down. Leigh East took advantage of the extra man scoring their third try of the afternoon through centre Sam Grainey to make the score 18-16. The scores stayed like that until the final ten minutes when Scott O’Brien sliced open the Leigh East defence from a scrum to race into score his hat trick in the right corner, Youds converting from the touchline to make it 24-16. East hit back with a couple of minutes remaining after they again capitalised on a Miners error following a kick, winger Kevin Murphy going over to make it 24-20. Any hopes of a Leigh East comeback where ended from the restart when they knocked on from the kick, Miners taking full advantage of the field position to go over and score there sixth try of the afternoon, Jimmy Muir going over for his second of the day with Youds adding the extras to give the final score 30-20 in Miners favour. Looking back at the game the Leigh East camp will be encouraged by there performance as they look to build on last season’s finish and push for promotion to Division One, while Miners know they will have to play a whole heaps better come March if they are to challenge the big guns in the Premier Division.
MINERS TEAM = Jonny Youds, Scott Travis, Mike O’Boyle, Adam Thomason, Jack Probert, Jimmy Muir, Scott O’Brien, Matt Astley, Tom Farrimond, Darryl Kay, Tommy Parkinson, Danny Jackson, Dave Rowlands, Subs = Joe Harrison, Danny Jones, Chris Bowers, Mark Nicholson, Ellis Grimes, Brad Hargreaves, Harry Gagen, Adam Bibey
MINERS MOM = Jack Probert
EAST TEAM = Ben Horan, Jake Beaumont, Tom Worthington, Sam Grainey, Kevin Murphy, Adam Holland, Ryan Peters, Dean Balmer, Andy Ball, Craig Wingfield, Tom Fletcher, Lee Rowley, Mark Cahill, Subs = Zac Nicholls, Adam Wilkes, Saf Patel, Jay Yarwood, Alex Holcroft, Declan Flannery, Danny Grainey, Nicky Ratcliffe, Ryan O’Toole
EAST MOM = Kevin Murphy
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