Leigh claim first Super League victory

Leigh picked up their first two points of the season with a hard-fought 24-16 victory against St Helens at the Leigh Sports Village.

The Centurions’ last victory against Saints came at Hilton Park over 23 years ago.

Atelea Vea opened the scoring in the sixth minute after taking Ben Reynolds’ pass. Reynolds nailed the conversion to put the Centurions 6-0 ahead.

Micky Higham, who was making his home Super League appearance, showed quick thinking out of dummy half to send Gareth Hock for Leigh’s second try.

Adam Swift had a great opportunity to score Saints’ first four-pointer but Theo Fages’ pass was just behind the winger.

Jamie Acton breezed through the Saints line to add his name to the scoresheet with 28 minutes gone.

Saints had their first points on the board seven minutes before the interval, Swift taking Mark Percival’s pass before finishing acrobatically in the corner.

James Roby crossed over out of dummy half before Percival nailed the conversion to bring Keiron Cunningham’s men back within eight points.

Percival went so close to scoring his second but came up some tough defending from the hosts and subsequently knocked on a metre from the whitewash.

At the other end and Higham relieved some pressure by crossing over out of dummy half with 13 minutes left to leave Saints trailing by 12 points.

Alex Walmsley ensured the hosts weren’t going to have it all their own way by adding his name to the scoresheet before Percival nailed the conversion.

But it was too little too late as Leigh broke their duck in 2017.