Leigh Lions Come Out On Top At Stockport Festival

06/10/2019
Match report by Rob Leyland

Today was the third fixture of the new u12’s season and, following routine victories against Mold and Sedgeley Park, it was again time for the Lions to participate in the prestigious, invitation only, Stockport festival.

Last year, the Lion’s recorded 4 wins from their first 4 matches but then ran into a red hot Wilmslow side who stunned them to record a 3-0 victory and deny Leigh a clean sweep.

This year, the Lions were drawn in Pool B alongside Stockport Green, Sandbach, Wilmslow, Winnington Park and Caldy – it looked a very tough pool and some close matches looked inevitable!!

The games would be twelve minutes in length with two six minutes halves...

Game one: Sandbach 1 Wilmslow 3
Game two: Winnington Park 1 Caldy 3
Game three: Stockport Green 1 Leigh 2

Stockport kicked off to get the game underway and Mitch took in Leigh’s first drive of the day. Stockport were a highly committed outfit and soon pushed Leigh back towards their own line and enjoyed an early period of pressure forcing Evan to kick clear from inside his own twenty two. A good kick chase and tackle from Sam forced a turnover and Leigh were finally able to take a breath after a frenetic start. The game settled down and a tight midfield battle ensued owing largely to the relatively small pitch leaving little room for the backs to operate out wide. Leigh began to assert some authority and a good break from Sam nearly resulted in the breakthrough but he was well tackled just short of the line however, the first try was clearly coming and, after Leigh had forced an error from their opponents to win a penalty, they executed a lovely set move, straight from the training pitch, which led to Sam feeding Louie to dive over in the corner to give the Lion’s a 1-0 lead.

Having had to work hard for the first try, Leigh scored their second straight from the kick off by turning over the ball and Jack screamed clear to put them 2-0 up and that was that for the first half.

Having had to work really hard for their half time lead it would have been expected that Leigh would race away with the game in the second half but that was not the case...Stockport came flying out of the traps and put the Lions under some serious pressure. They managed to hold firm until the final play of the game when Stockport went over for a well deserved consolation try to leave the final score at 2-1 in favour of the Lions.

Game four: Winnington Park 2 Stockport Green 2

Game five: Caldy 1 Wilmslow 2

Game six: Sandbach 0 Leigh 4

Evan kicked off which should have given Sandbach some early possession but some strong Leigh tackling and rucking resulted in an early turnover and a good break from Joe nearly resulted in the opening try but he was held up just short. Leigh continued to dominate possession and wasn’t long until they made the breakthrough. Mikey made a great break and passed to Callum who was held up but a smart off-load allowed Noah to dive over and give Leigh a well deserved lead. Brad then forced himself over in the left corner to double Leigh’s lead at the break.

The second half was more of the same. Leigh continued to pour forward and Evan jinked his way through the defence to score the third before Jimmy cleverly scooted from a penalty re-start to score the fourth and final try to round off a comfortable victory.

Game seven: Caldy 1 Stockport Green 1
Game eight: Sandbach 1 Winnington Park 4
Game nine: Wilmslow 0 Leigh 1

The match the Lions had been waiting for! After two humbling defeats to Wilmslow last season, Leigh were hoping to put in a strong performance against their talented Cheshire counterparts. Wilmslow kicked off and proceeded to camp themselves in the Leigh twenty two for the early period of the game. Both Sam and Jack won good turnovers to try and relieve the pressure but Wilmslow kept on coming and Leigh showed great resolve in defence with the whole team pulling together to hold firm until half time with score at 0-0.
Evan kicked off the second half and, after Wilmslow had been penalised for some ruck infringements, Leigh were enjoying their best spell of the game and they made their early territorial advantage count. Evan evaded a tackle and fed Callum who raced over to give the Lions a crucial lead. As would be expected, Wilmslow came back hard and Leigh were pegged back for the remainder of the game and a late turnover from Brad helped them hold on to record a first victory against the Cheshire powerhouses!

Game ten: Stockport 1 Wilmslow 5
Game eleven: Leigh 2 Winnington Park 1

Having laid the Wilmslow ghost to rest, it was important that Leigh didn’t take their eye off the ball and make sure that they finished the tournament off unbeaten. Winnington Park were no mugs and, after a scrappy start which saw Leigh again camped in their own twenty two, Brad came up with a moment of magic to bounce off multiple tacklers to score an amazing full lengther! Leigh should have built of that but instead they again found themselves under pressure and Winnington scored a deserved try to make it 1-1 at half time.

That late first half try was a wake-up call for the Lions and they proceeded to dominate the second half. Jimmy went close with a clever scoot before Callum touched down in the left corner after a fine charge down from an attempted kick clearance. That was enough to give another win and just Caldy stood between them and clean sweep.

Game twelve: Caldy 4 Sandbach 0
Game thirteen: Leigh 1 Caldy 0

Evan took the kick off and Caldy made an early error to gift Leigh possession but they were unable to capitalise on the error. Caldy pushed forward but Sam came up with a turnover in the ruck to stem the tide. The game settled down into a midfield battle with neither side able to really force any advantage. Leigh moved into Caldy territory and when caldy attemped an ambitious pass, Joe intercepted and raced over for the first try of the match to give Leigh the lead at the break.

Caldy started the second half strongly but Leigh were not about to throw away all their hard work and some great team defence saw them hold firm and they held on for a hard fought win to complete a fine five wins from five!!
Game fourteen: Wilmslow 3 Winnington Park 0
Game fifteen: Stockport 2 Sandbach 0

That brought the festival to it’s conclusion, the final pool table was as follows:

The table says it all!
3, 2, 1...LIONS!