Below par 'Park fall to well orgasnised Leigh.

Leigh 20 v 3 Broughton Park

Broughton Park travelled to Leigh with a degree of confidence having been unbeaten, winning their first 5 games of the season. At the end of the 80mins they had been well beaten by a better organised and more committed team. With the return of Knight, Clifford and Verbickas it was hoped that Park would continue to build upon their successful beginning to the season. With Knight being well covered in the lineout and Clifford having no room to manoeuvre it was only Verbickas who played close to his best as he continually relieved the pressure on the Park defence with either a booming kick to touch or a last ditch tackle.

Very little was seen of Park as an attacking outfit as they only threatened the Leigh line occasionally. In the first half Joe Wykes nearly scored as he hacked the ball on but failed to gather by the Leigh line and in the second half a desperate tap tackle on Tom Foden prevented the fly half from scoring. Even though Park started brightly and went into a 3 nil lead, courtesy of the boot of Verbickas, it was plain to see that Leigh were going to be Parks sternest test of the season. Leigh levelled the scores with Wilcock converting a penalty and for the rest of the 1st half Leigh pressured Park in their own half.

Park found it very difficult to gain parity in either lineout and scrum and only gained possession when given a rare penalty or the ball was turned over in the tackle. It was not long before Leigh took the lead with Wilcock joining the line, after Leigh has won yet another scrum, and scoring in the corner. Too many first up tackles were now being missed and the Leigh left winger, Bentham, capitalised on this as he spread eagled the Park defence to score. The second half started badly for Park as the Leigh forwards mounted a sustained attacking move resulting in the Leigh prop, Bailey, scoring under the posts. The try was converted and with the 2nd half only a few minutes old it looked as though Park would now concede an avalanche of points but to their credit no further points were scored in the game.

With Rodgers and Coackley being substituted with injuries both their replacements took their chance in a lost cause and played with passion. Grant Little seemed to be everywhere on the pitch, which helped lift the flagging spirits of Park forwards and a degree of parity was achieved in the forward exchanges, and Tom Birch settled into his centre role as a seasoned campaigner. Even though the result was never going to change, Park did deserve some credit for continuing to battle and with Michael Hughes coming on in the final 10mins, for a tired Mark Flynn, Park looked to be beginning to believe in themselves and show sighs that they can play the rugby the Park coaches require them to play, if they wish to gain promotion at the end of the season.

David Walsh

1st XV Manager