Leigh Sport
East crash out of National Cup
4:38pm Thursday 16th February 2012
Leigh East 8 Siddal 28
SATURDAY’S amateur rugby league National Cup second-round clash was played on the narrower 3G pitch at Leigh Sports Village, which led to a game dominated by forward play.
East took the lead after three minutes, with stand off Kerrod Sclemes putting a high ball towards the Siddal line and centre James Noon leaping to catch and ground while Siddal full back Blackburn waited for the ball to drop into his hands. Sclemes added the conversion.
Following a great spell of end-to-end rugby, Siddal responded on 18 minutes when long passes from Steve Illingworth and Chris Geoghan stretched the East defence to give wing Domenic Booth a score on the right wing, Gareth Blackburn accurately slotting over to level the scores.
Both teams continued to attack each other’s line but both defences were solid.
On the stroke of half time East were awarded a penalty which Sclemes slotted over to give East a two-point lead at the break.
Six minutes after the restart Siddal stand off Chris Brooke dabbed a grubber kick towards the East line, taking a wicked bounce in front of full back Kieron Dainty and allowing Matthew Batley to pounce and put Siddal in the lead at 8-10.
The reputation of both teams is that they are solid in defence and ruthless on the attack and both teams tested each other to the hilt over the next 20 minutes.
Siddal finally broke the arm wrestle when a poor chip through by Adam Holland was recovered by prop Stuart Law on the halfway line. Second row Nicholas Smith made a sharp break and turned the ball inside for Brooke to run 20 metres to the line, with Blackburn again adding the goal.
Siddal added to their score only two plays after the restart, loose forward Simeon Hoyle breaking the line on half way and finding Blackburn on his right shoulder for a comfortable sprint to the line.
East pushed to close the scoreline in the remaining 10 minutes but were held out by excellent defending from Siddal.
As time was running out Andrew Fox made a break from acting half before passing for Chris Groghan to score the final try of the game, Blackburn landing his fourth conversion wrap up Siddal’s win.