Leigh Centurions 30, South Sydney 8

LEIGH Centurions posted their intentions for the new season with an impressive victory over Australian tourists South Sydney at Hilton Park last night.

With several of their new faces playing key roles, Leigh ran away with the game in the second half after holding a slender 4-2 half time advantage.

Neil Turley and Simon Svabic, who shared the full-back position, both had big games, Martin Roden showed great maturity and invention at hooker while scrum-half John Duffy was keen to bring his outside backs into the action at every opportunity.

All in all it was just the short of pre-season build up that Leigh would have wanted.

Souths showed plenty of ability and had a couple of dangerous centres in Michael Lyons and Craig Carrington. But Leigh's defensive blanket kept their line intact until the 66th minute when the Rabbitohs scored their only try.

On a foul night ruined by driving rain and a biting wind, Leigh showed remarkable enterprise given the conditions. They moved the ball at every opportunity while denying Souths a sight of the tryline with an outstanding defensive effort.

Referee Ian Smith needed to work overtime in the first half to keep the lid on a potential powerkeg of a game. Three times the teams squared up to each other, the third occasion ending with Leigh's Dave Bradbury and Souths' Darren Taffe cooling off in the sin-bin.

Twenty-three minutes of stalemate was broken when Carrington kicked Souths into a 2-0 lead with a penalty goal.

But Leigh had gone close of several occasions; Andy Fairclough and David Ingram both being denied at the last minute. Yet they had to wait until two minutes from the interval to make the breakthrough when Adam Bristow's pass sent Paul Anderson sliding in at the corner.

Two tries in three minutes early in the second half swung the game decisively Leigh's way. Roden's smart work at dummy half got Phil Kendrick over and when Lee Sanderson's kick was fumbled by Souths, Turley pounced. A touchline conversion by Turley put leigh 14-2 up.

A try from Lyndsay Munro, converted by Carrington, closed the gap before Leigh finished things off with three tries in the last seven minutes. Skipper Fairclough crossed twice and Paul Wingfield added another with Wingfield taking his goals tally to three.