Rowley already looking forward with Leigh after Cup exit

Leigh coach Paul Rowley has called on his team to re-focus on their push for promotion from the Championship, after they were knocked out of the Challenge Cup at the weekend.

Warrington secured their own place in the semi-final of the competition with the 34-24 win, but Rowley was very proud of his players’ efforts.

“The dream ends here, I suppose, but we live to fight another day,” he said.

“We’ll re-focus on the job in hand, which is the Championship.

“We’re bitterly disappointed to not get the result. They were two evenly matched sides.

“We thought Warrington were flagging – at the back end of the first half they were struggling. They were holding on drastically.

“Half-time came at a bad time for us. We used to 10 minutes, and I think we had 15, because our opening spell was very poor defensively.

“They did a good job on us.”

Rowley also feels some important lessons were learned by his men.

“I guess the thing we’ve learned is that we can compete with the likes of Warrington,” he said.

“To say that we’re two equally matched sides is a great compliment to my team in itself.

“I suppose what it does do again is let the world know again that Leigh Centurions are the real deal.”