Soap Surge On

Crosfields confident start to life in Division 2 continued with a hard fought victory away at near neighbours Leigh East maintaining their position at the top of the league.

In a game that was much more demanding and physical than the previous encounters this season the Soap dug deep and continued a mean streak of defence and slick attack to set up the valuable away win. Playing for the first time on East's synthetic surface and in front of a good Warrington following it was the visitors who struck first with Nathan Taylor latching on to a Jack Reid chip through for his 4th try in two games on 17 minutes.

The game was tense and low scoring in the opening period which was marred by a horrific injury to East captain Dean Balmer suffering a dislocated and broken ankle in a tackle. All at Crosfields send their best wishes and hope for a speedy recovery. The enforced 35 minute stoppage in play was tough on both teams and the home team dominated territory and possession for the remainder of the half. However it was the Soap who broke the deadlock on the stroke of half time. Chris Dean fresh from a stand out performance the previous week was promoted to a starting berth this week and finished off a sweeping Crosfields move following a relieving penalty. Chris Hull broke the line and fed the supporting Dean to touch down under the sticks with Jack Reid adding the extras to take Crosfields in at half time 12-0 to the good.

The second period saw the Leigh men come out with fresh impetus and fight pushing the Soap defence to it's limits - but hold firm they did. 2 minutes into the half a huge up an under from Captain - and again man of the match Jack Reid - led to a penalty for off side that he duly slotted to extend the lead. The home team pushed hard and were pushing the patience of the referee as he put them on a team warning for persistent penalties. On 55 minutes this led to the sin binning of Leigh East's William Bishop that Crosfields fully took advantage of.

First 2 minutes later Joe Clark notched a rare try under the sticks following a set play and 5 minutes later the game was put to bed following a superb Hayden James dart from dummy half, full back Ash Cornelia was fed by Reid who dummied through the line to cap off an excellent performance by the in form full back. Reid added the extras to both scores to take the score to 26-0 with 18 minutes left on the clock.

With 73 minutes played the hosts finally got on the scoresheet. The Soap were guilty of standing still assuming a scrum would be given for a knock-on at the play the ball and the East full back Ben Parry capitalised to score under the posts with the conversion coming from Thomas Worthington. In three games this season the soap have conceded three tries and this was the first for 190 minutes of rugby showing that they are working very hard for each other as a defensive unit.

With the game coming to a close another Leigh penalty gave Jack Reid an easy task for the final score taking the score to 28-6 to the early season leaders.
Reid was crowned man of the match for the second time in three games and he was well backed up by the outstanding duo of Chris Dean and Ash Cornelia.

Next week East Leeds visit the Soap with a 2:30pm kick off