Rugby - No Leigh-way for Kirkby (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Rugby - No Leigh-way for Kirkby

12:40pm Thursday 24th March 2011 in Sport

Leigh 82, Kirkby Lonsdale 15.

ON A perfect day for running rugby it was Leigh - immediately above Kirkby in the table and keen to put some space between the sides - who did most of it.

Early pressure from the hosts brought a penalty which Welch kicked and then centre McKinsty ran through the defence for the first of his side's 13 tries.

Leigh's No. 8 Dyson was a handful and although Horsfall's tackle stopped him the resulting penalty resulted in a rolling maul from the linelout with Wood scoring.

Kirkby won the restart ball afdter Clearly's good kick and earned a penalty which the same player put over.

Lack of discipline at the breakdown did not help Kirkby's cause and from a quick tap Dyson broke through and quick recycling put Baker over for another converted try.

Two more converted tries were added by Leigh's Bates and Dyson before kirkby put togrther a good passage of play.

Even though Leigh prop Baker was yellow-carded, Kirkby could not cross the line and only a great cover tackle by Squires prevented another Leigh score.

Stuart Story came on on for his first-team debut for Ryan Holmes at the start of the second half.

But a familiar pattern emerged with the Leigh forwards making holes in the defence and the backs taking advange as Crompton and Crason added tries, both converted by Leech.

After conceding the ninth try, Kirkby came to life and good attacking play resulted in Belshaw scoring, with Cleary converting.

Leigh turned defence into attack as scrum-half Wood finished off a move from a lineout on the home 22.

Two more tries followed from Newton and Dyson, who completed a hat-trick, before kirkby got on the scoresheet again when centre Close intercepted and ran 50 metres before passing ot Cleary who ouptaced the cover for another five points.

A final Leigh try made the score 82-15 when Dyson broke clear again.