Leigh's derby delight

In an opening spell during which both teams cancelled each other out Tyldesley opened the scoring with a well taken penalty from fly half Mackintosh.

With the wind at their backs Tyldesley continually penned Leigh deep in their own half, but outstanding defence from new hooker Jibson and the rest of his team mates kept them at bay.

To relieve the pressure good play from fly half Marsh enabled winger Bridge to collect a cute little chip and put Harrison away and only a fantastic last ditch tackle from the full back stopped Leigh from opening their account.

Caine replaced Tustin at prop as Leigh started the second half strongly and immediately played the game deep in the Tyldesley half. Good lineout ball from Tyldesley old boy Davies gave Leigh the platform to send winger Bridge diving in at the corner. A touchline conversion from full back Sale extended the lead to 7-3.

Leigh looked dangerous every time their backs were in possession as forwards Billinge, Lester, Travers and Bibby went into overdrive. From a resulting maul initially set up by Newton a long pass from scrum half Brett enabled Bridge to score his second try of the game.

Another touchline conversion from Sale gave Leigh a comfortable 14-3 lead with a quarter of the game to go.

Tyldesley are not the league leaders for no reason and refused to give in. Their heavier pack began to dominate the scrums and put Leigh under a tremendous amount of pressure. From a resulting scrum Leigh gave away a penalty try which Mackintosh converted to narrow the gap to 14-10.

From the re-start Leigh were able to put Tyldesley under more pressure and a good drive from the forwards enabled flanker Billinge to peel blind to score in the corner to make it 19-10.

Leigh were not yet finished and from a wayward penalty attempt from Sale, prop Caine pounced onto a loose ball to dive under the posts for the match clinching try with Sale adding the conversion.