Siddal 42 Leigh Miners Rangers 4
Miners Rangers Grand Final hopes were ended in brutal fashion as league winners Siddal gained full revenge for their reversal in the previous season’s showpiece finale. Having battled through three tough play-off matches to earn their place at Widnes this was perhaps a game too far for the Leigh side who defended manfully throughout against a Siddal side on top form but couldn’t hold out against the weight of possession and the punishing metres of the Halifax team’s pack.
From the earliest exchanges Siddal pushed hard at the Miners’ line with some tenacious defence led by Mick O’Boyle, Lee Gittins and Scott O’Brien and they soon made the breakthrough when Kyle Ackroyd sliced through the defence from close range, Gavin Stead adding the conversion. Miners rallied and enjoyed their best spell of the game as they forced a couple of repeat sets on the back of a fine break by Sam Peet but could find no way through the Siddal defence and were then hit with two sucker punches before half time as Siddal struck twice with tries for Iain Davies bulldozing his way over then quick thinking from Sean McCormack to scramble in and 18-0 at the break.
Of course Miners had come back from a similar deficit the previous season but for lightning to strike twice they needed the first score of the second half and instead it was Siddal who went further ahead. Miners were harshly penalised for stealing the ball when it appeared Gareth Blackburn had tried to offload as he was driven into touch, and from the penalty Shaun Garrod danced his way over the line. Miners finally had their breakthrough as Will Ashworth created a try for himself, kicking behind the line then just managing to touch the ball down before it ran dead. But the comeback wasn’t to materialise as Siddal continued to hunt for points with the outstanding Gareth English having a significant impact from the bench and fellow replacement McCormack grabbing his second. A try for Jack Georgiou with the final play brought up a cruel forty for Miners but the Leigh side can still reflect on a fine season for the club as all four senior sides claimed silverware in addition to the continuing success of the Academy youngsters.
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