Leigh Centurions secured promotion to Super League for the first time since 2005 as a first-half masterclass proved to be enough to clinch a fifth consecutive win in the Qualifiers and leave Huddersfield nervously looking at the teams below them.
The Championship’s biggest spenders by some distance, the pressure was undoubtedly on Leigh after winning one of their seven games in the Qualifiers last year, eventually failing to gain promotion and finishing bottom of the eight-team mini-league.
But this year has been a very different story. This victory ensured that they and the Super League champions, Leeds, cannot be caught at the top of the table. It also means at least one Super League team – Huddersfield, Hull KR or Salford – will drop into the Championship with the final game between the Giants and the Robins on 25 September looking pivotal.
For Leeds, that will bring relief after being unexpectedly dragged into a relegation battle: for Leigh, it will bring unbridled joy. Instead of trips to Swinton and Oldham next year, it will be mouth-watering derbies against Wigan and Warrington for a side who have set the benchmark in the second tier for the past three seasons.
For a game with so much on the line, the Centurions were magnificent in the first half; scoring seven tries and dismantling a side who finished third in Super League 12 months ago.
They led 18-0 after 13 minutes with two tries from Matty Dawson following the opener from Greg Worthington and although Huddersfield threatened a comeback when Michael Lawrence and Aaron Murphy touched down to make it 18-10, normal service resumed soon after.
With the Giants pressing, the outstanding Martyn Ridyard picked off a Danny Brough pass to race the length of the field. Dawson’s hat-trick, a well-taken finish from Cory Paterson and a second for Ridyard right on the half-time hooter opened up a 32-point gap for the Centurions that never really looked in danger of being overhauled despite some late heroics from the Giants.
Mitch Brown extended the lead to 48-10 shortly after half-time before an extraordinary passage of play from Huddersfield, who scored 30 points in 30 minutes, caused mild panic among the home fans, but the Centurions ultimately had enough.
Leigh’s last Super League campaign in 2005 finished with a total of two wins all season. On the basis of how they have handled the Qualifiers this year and the way they performed for long stretches of this game, you suspect they will win a few more in 2017.
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