Leigh were seriously impressive tonight. Fev came and had a real go, much more so than in Tottenham. They went beyond their limits to the point of injuring themselves (5/6 players) but Leigh not only stood up, we proved we are bigger, faster and stronger. Brilliant performances all over the pitch but special mentions for Asiata and Amone who did a lot of the damage physically. If there is a better centre than Ed Chamberlain in the championship i have not seen one. Don't say it out loud but i think i'd rather have him than McDonald. Never puts a foot wrong. We have other players like Chamberlain who just do their jobs efficiently without the flashy and make very few mistakes, Smith, Stone and Wardle come to mind. I didn't think Ipape had his best game but again had a few unplayable moments. We will do remarkably well if we manage to keep hold of him. Inu left his kicking boots at home (think its the pink one), black and white obviously don't have the magic. I did, however love the physicality he brought tonight with some massive hits. I don't know if Joey Leilua questioned Ben Reynolds' parentage at some point but Ben seemed to take particular pleasure in 'putting the hit on Leilua' tonight who wilted under the pressure. Well done Ben. Ferguson is just a machine, is that 11 tries in 5 matches?
I do still think we need a half back, maybe 2. Reynolds and Hingano just don't cut it. Ben was good physically tonight but lacks imagination with ball in hand and Ata just isn't good enough. IF we lost Joe Mellor it would be a massive blow. Two good attacking/ organising halfbacks would make us destructive and would make better use of our attacking threats. There are still times were we lack that organisation in attack.
One negative mention for the referee tonight. He was appalling for both sides. Inu's sending off was a soft one and not in the same ballpark as the Fev sending off at the last. He made many dodgy calls throughout the match which really affected the flow of the game. A better referee would have allowed the match to flow better and the scoreline would have been bigger as a result. Lots of stop/start moments took away from our roll and allowed Fev to get set.
Mark my words, tonight was a real turning point in the season. Fev came under instruction to have a real go physically and came off 2nd best to the point of injury. Yes they had chances they didn't take but we were never out of control. They cannot beat us playing rugby, they now know they cannot beat us physically. A real turning point.
