Eagles lose to Centurions at OLP

25/06/2022

Sheffield Eagles recorded back-to-back defeats, losing to the Leigh Centurions 4-58 at the Olympic Legacy Park on Friday night.

Mark Aston’s squad, still affected by injury and suspensions, saw Cory Aston start in the absence of captain Anthony Thackeray. Vila Halafihi returned to start following a break out of the team with injury and Brandon Douglas replaced Ross Oakes.

It took the full-time visitors six minutes to register their first points of the evening. Australian international winger Blake Ferguson set up Joe Mellor with a kick following a break down the right edge. Reynolds in fine form that evening, kicked the first of nine conversions.

John Asiata’s offload put away Adam Sidlow for Leigh’s second score in the 12th minute, his try was added to by Joe Wardle’s effort a minute later.

The Eagles registered their only try of the game a minute before the hooter sounded through Jason Bass. His acrobatic effort in the corner followed good work by Eagles half-back Cory Aston who found Bass with a lovely pass out-wide.

Following a sluggish start in South Yorkshire, Sheffield fought back and levelled up the scores temporarily thanks to two tries in the final ten minutes of the first half.

Half-time - Sheffield Eagles 4-18 Leigh Centurions

The Championship leaders showed their pedigree in the second forty minutes and ran-in 40 unanswered points.

Ben Reynolds went in untouched underneath the posts following Tom Holmes' sin-bin offence.

Edwin Ipape was the next Leigh scorer, the hooker added back-to-back scores before Wardle collected his double.

It was the turn of Nene MacDonald to show his quality next, the centre added two tries in 10 minutes before Sidlow completed his two-try scoring performance in the final minute.

Full-time - Sheffield Eagles 4-58 Leigh Centurions

By Lewis Coleman, photo by Alex Coleman