West Hull 40, Leigh East 12

LEIGH East continued their erratic start to the season with a disappointing National Conference League defeat at West Hull.

Only the bravest would predict a victory for any side at West Hull but Easts were expected to put up a far better show than this. And even though the two sides were not 28 points apart in footballing ability East's shaky defence and their tendency to poor discipline helped the home side to an easy victory.

Their were strong performances from East's second rowers Mark Starkie and Peter Clark, substitute Gary Greenough worked tremendously hard whilst the defensive efforts of loose forward Wingfield, centre Marsden and full back Kay undoubtedly saved the Leigh side from further embarrassment.

Easts will argue that refereeing decisions went against them but overall they must look to their own weaknesses rather than search for excuses.

They suffered a major setback as early as the first minute when tackle-machine John Taylor was forced to quit with a badly cut head. West Hull took advantage and immediately went 6-0 up. By the 16th minute they were 18-0 in front.

East's very first attack on the Hull line ended with a try for Lee Wingfield from a short kick by Gunning, Woods goaling to make it 18-6. Ten minutes later East were back in it when Woods intercepted and raced 60 yards to touch down and add the goal. But hope was short lived with Hull scoring in injury time to make the half time score 20-12.

The second half saw a total collapse from the visitors as West Hull added three more tries and four goals to complete the rout.

East have another difficult fixture this weekend when in-form Wigan St Judes are the visitors to Grasmere Street, kick off 2.30.