Hunslet 6 Leigh 42: Hawks pose problems for champions Leigh

Things were going well for the home side when, 25 minutes in, Brad Brennan appeared to have opened the scoring when hammered the ball forward when sliding across the line, only for the referee to judge he has been held up.

The whole first half proved to be a defensive battle between both teams, until with five minutes before the break, Leigh broke the deadlock through Oliver Wilkes’s try, with Martin Ridyard on hand to land the conversion.

The second half started the same as the first, with both teams cancelling each other out.

But, in the 45th minute, Luke Briscoe latched onto Andy Kain’s kick to level the game.

But any hope of the hawks pulling off what would have been a shock win were swiftly ended when, with 20 minutes to play, the reigning champions seemed to finally wake up by scoring a number of tries in quick succession.

Martin Aspinwall started the scoring in the 59th minute, quickly followed by Liam Kay, Sam Barlow and Johnny Pownall in the 62nd, 66th and 72nd minute respectively taking the score to 26-6.

Further tries from came from Sean Penkywicz, Andrew Dixon and a second from Liam Kay in the 76th, 78th and 80th minute.

The Hawks will look to bounce back from their defeat when they now head to Halifax on Easter Monday.

Hunslet Hawks: Watson, Duckworth, Briscoe, Mvududu, Barnett, Kain, Brown, Lyons, Lee, Mulhern, Backhouse, Cosgrove, Mackay. Substitutes: Brennan, Haley, Ansell, Castle

Leigh Centurions: McNally, Pownall, Worthington, Armstrong, Kay, Ridyard, Brierley, Moi Moi, Beswick, Spencer, Haggerty, Dixon, Barlow. Substitutes: Penkywicz, Wilkes, Aspinwall, Walker.

Referee: C Kendall (RFL).