Leigh Centurions thrash Featherstone Rovers to underline Super League credentials

Leigh Centurions took on Featherstone Rovers this evening in the last game of Saturday’s Championship Summer Bash.

Things couldn’t have started any worse for Featherstone as John Asiata scampered over under the posts from a delightful Adam Sidlow pass.

However, a powerful charge from Joey Leilua brought Rovers back immediately, though Craig Hall’s missed conversion left Leigh in the lead at 6-4.

Big hits were traded from the likes of Gadwin Springer and Adam Sidlow before Blake Ferguson cut inside on an angled run to slice through the Featherstone defence to make it 12-4 – much to the joy of the Leigh fans behind the posts.

Things went from bad to worse for the Rovers as Leigh made their opponents pay for a mistake soon after as Ferguson found Caleb Aekins on the inside following a great Sam Stone offload. A superb Ben Reynolds conversion from the touchline made it 18-4.

The game turned into a brawl just before the half-hour as Nene MacDonald was shown a red card with Featherstone Rovers’ Tyla Hepi given his marching orders simultaneously.

Gareth Gale should have brought Rovers back into it shortly after, but he dropped the ball over the line after Leilua caused damage down the right.

And, the Centurions made Featherstone pay moments later when Edwin Ipape burrowed over from dummy-half.

Credit to Rovers, however, Connor Jones ran to the Leigh line from 30 metres out to hand Featherstone a lifeline. Hall converted to reduce the deficit to 14 at half-time.

Aekins crossed for the first try of the second-half on 47 minutes after receiving a great ball from Joe Mellor, but Sam Eseh replied instantly to make it 28-16.

Ed Chamberlain crossed for a great try moments later as Leigh opened up a 32-16 lead as Stone registered shortly after with Featherstone completely blown away.

Joe Wardle continued the procession as the Centurions racked up 40 points with Lachlan Lam coming off the bench to streak under the posts off a great Aekins break to round off the scoring.