Jukes: Tickle led the way

Danny Tickle, who turned 34 on match day, was a standout performer for Leigh head coach Neil Jukes especially as he was moved around in the pack.

The Centurions ran in five tries on the way to a comprehensive 30-0 victory against Huddersfield at the Leigh Sports Village on Friday.

“I thought Danny Tickle was man of the match by a country mile,” he said.

“He’s not played in the back row for a while but was brilliant and epitomised what our team is about.

“Getting on with your job no matter where you are.”

Jukes thought his side were even better defensively after last week’s 20-0 defeat against Wigan.

“I was pretty pleased with our defence last week to be fair so we just probably needed to improve some little things for the amount of ball we put down,” he added.

“We backed it up again this week and improved probably structurally on our edges.

“Huddersfield have some big powerful boys like [Sebastine] Ikahihifo and [Sam] Rapira but we had some good line speed, good contact and come up with some really big plays defensively.”

Jukes also highlighted how good it was to put so many points on a team littered with senior internationals.

“To actually get the outcome of a 30-0 score line against a side with the likes of [Jermaine] McGillvary, [Leroy] Cudjoe, Ukuma Ta’ai, [Sam] Rapira and [Ryan] Hinchcliffe,” he continued.

“They’re a team full of proven Super League and NRL players, who are current internationals as well.”

After losing Antoni Maria for a few months following the defeat against Leeds, Jukes confirmed centre Willie Tonga faces over two months out.

“He tore his bicep and will be out for 10 weeks which is a real shame because he’s been going really well for us,” he said.

“Willie works incredibly hard and as much as he’s had some niggles it’s just a freaky one really.”