Championship preview: Leigh v Rochdale

Leigh Centurions forward Martin Aspinwall is battling a rib injury ahead of Sunday’s Kingstone Press Championship clash with Rochdale Hornets.

Aspinwall suffered the injury against North Wales Crusaders and is a major doubt for Sunday’s match along with Matty Sarsfield (tonsillitis).

Centurions coach Paul Rowley said: “We need to improve across the board because Rochdale have done enough in all their games to show that they can play rugby and score points.

“They’ve been in front in a few games and scored some good tries. They’ve obviously got it in them, and now they’ve got that first win they’ll sense an opportunity and want to lay down a marker on Sunday, but we’ll prepare well and we’ll be better than last week.”

Rowley could include a number of youngsters after praising the efforts of U20s coach Paul Anderson. He said: “Paul, Simon Finnigan and Steve Mayo have done a great job. All the younger players are challenging for spots and we might see one or two this week.”

Rochdale centre Dave Llewellyn is waiting for news on a possible broken ankle, and will miss Sunday’s trip to Leigh Sports Village.

Hornets coach Ian Talbot said: “It was a great performance by us last week against Batley.

“We’ll keep going along doing what we’re doing and let people think Batley were bad, because that’s all we’ve read.”