Featherstone Rovers 20 Leigh Centurions 75 by Mike Hulme: WOW! Rarely do you see perfection on a rugby league field and even more rarely are you there to see it in the flesh.

Awesome, magnificent, sensational. Use any of the adjectives you like - they all fit Leigh's breathtaking performance. It was a privilege to see such excellence.

You'd have to go a long way to see a better 40 minutes that Leigh produced in the first half. They scored eight dazzling tries in an incredible first 26 minutes on their way to a 47-0 interval lead.

They met some stronger resistance after the break but Leigh were already well on their way to inflicting a club record defeat on Rovers.

The excellence of Leigh's first half performance even surprised coach Darren Abram. "You always strive for perfection, but rarely achieve it. But I was so proud of how we played in the opening half hour. It was a joy to watch," he said.

With an astonishing completion rate of 97 per cent, Leigh were totally dominant from the first minute up to the half time hooter.

Props Heath Cruckshank and Matt Sturm set the platform up front and half-backs John Duffy and Tommy Martyn were spoiled for choice as Leigh's off-the-ball movement had Rovers mesmerised.

What better day to make your debut. Twenty-years-old Mick Govin was handed the crucial hooking role in the absence of Paul Rowley and Dave McConnell and came up with a vintage performance that bodes well for the future.

Although he played out of position, Govin was a dominant figure in the middle. His sprints out of dummy half were Rowley-like, his distribution was excellent, his finishing just as good and his awareness laid on two of Leigh's 13 tries.

If Leigh had one eye on next Sunday's Arriva Trains Cup Final they didn't show it.

"We've prepared just with this game in mind. We wanted to go into the Final still top of the table and knew only a top-notch performance would do that," Abram added.

"We'll certainly be going into the final in the right frame of mind."

Rovers boss Gary Price couldn't believe what he'd just seen. "We've been blown away by a quality team on top of it's game," he said.

"Leigh were ruthlessly clinical in their finishing and it was as good a performance as your ever likely to see. It just underlines how much work we've still got to do to approach Leigh's class."

From the moment that Duffy produced a defence-splitting pass in only the second minute to send Danny Halliwell tearing through for the first of his three tries, Leigh had their tails up.

They hit top gear straight from the kick off and kept their foot hard on the pedal until half time.

When Rovers put the kick off out on the full, Leigh roared back upfield where Govin slipped a short ball to Cruckshank who skittled three defenders to get in at the foot of the posts. Leigh were in dreamland with a dozen points on the board inside five minutes.

And it got better and better. Leigh even had the luxury of bombing one try when Martyn chose to kick instead of pass and have another disallowed for a marginal offside against Neil Turley.

Martyn soon made up for his error of judgement with a cut-out pass that brought Rob Smyth a try at the corner. The winger was soon in again, this time cashing in after being set up brilliantly by Dave Larder and Ben Cooper. Duffy's nifty footwork brought Dan Potter a try and when Turley kicked the goal Leigh were home and hosed with a 22-0 lead after just 14 minutes.

Rovers simply could stop the red tide. Halliwell continued his recent excellent form with a first half hat-trick, twice picking off speculative wide passes from Richard Blakeway to sprint 80 metres. Sandwiched between Halliwell's interceptions, Govin marked his debut with a neatly taken try after Simon Knox had created the initial hole.

When Martyn knocked over a cheeky long range drop goal to make it 47-0 just before the break the question was could Leigh repeat it in the second half.

The answer was yes and no.

They managed five more tries but will be kicking themselves that they allowed Rovers four of their own.

By the time Rovers broke their duck with a Jamie Stokes try in the 47th minute Leigh had already gone past the half century with Duffy selling two huge dummies before sprinting over. With Turley retired to the sidelines with a cut nose, Martyn gave a Jonny Wilkinson impersonation with the goal shot - only nowhere near as accurately.

Stokes laid on a try for centre partner Richard Newlove and Stuart Dickens tagged on the extras before Martyn stripped the ball off a gob-smacked Bryan Henare to saunter across for another try before the Halliwell/Potter combination on the left created another for Oliver Wilkes.

Martyn handed over the kicking duties to Smyth and he finished with four from four.

Govin's break up the middle laid another try on a plate for Knox before Leigh were stung by two quick tries from Steve Dooler and Stokes. Fittingly it was Leigh who had the last word with Cooper showing good footwork to step his way to the line and record his first try in Leigh colours.

Scorers - Leigh: Tries - Halliwell (2, 21, 27), Cruckshank (5), Smyth (8,12),

Potter (14), Govin (25), Duffy (44), Martyn (54), Wilkes (60), Knox (63), Cooper (80). Gls: Turley 7/8, Smyth 4/4, Martyn 0/1. Martyn fg.

Featherstone: Tries - Stokes (47, 78), Newlove (49), Dooler (72). Gls: Dickens 3/4.

Featherstone: Batty; Stokes, McNally, Newlove, Wray; Blakeway, Presley; Tonks, Chapman, Dickens, Dooler, Hayes, Darley. Subs (used): Zitter, Henare, Lowe, Carlton.

Leigh: Turley; Munro, Halliwell, Cooper, Smyth; Duffy, Martyn; Sturm, Govin, Cruckshank, Larder, Potter, Wilkes. Subs (used): Knox, Swann, Marshall, Isherwood.

Handling errors: Rovers 6, Leigh 7

Penalties conceded: Rovers 5, Leigh 5.

Half time 47-0

Full time 75-20

Referee: Peter Taberner (Wigan)

Attendance: 1859.

Man

rDUFFY, Martyn, Halliwell, Cruckshank and Co all had big games but to make such an impact on your debut is the stuff of fairytales. Mick Govin looks to be a star in the making.

Magic

rA TOUGH call this after so many quality scores. But Duffy's killer pass for Halliwell's first try was only bettered by the centre's quality finish. It got Leigh off on the right foot.

rTHE petulant trip by Rovers' scrum-half Jon Presley after Martyn had scored deserved some punishment. Being to son of a former first grade referee he should know better.