Whitehaven Warriors 34, Leigh Centurions 12 THE Centurions are no nearer finding a cure for their travel sickness.

A seventh successive away defeat - and a pretty tame surrender at that - threatens to undo all the good work Leigh are starting to achieve at Hilton Park.

Three straight home wins have lit up a gloomy start to the season...but on the road Leigh are a different team.

Strangely lethargic in attack and back to their flimsy worst when defending, the Centurions handed the Warriors two points on a plate.

The Cumbrian's are always difficult to beat at the Recreation Ground - they certainly don't need any help!

Yet Leigh were at their most generous.

Unable to mount any sustained pressure on the Warriors' line, they made enough unforced errors to make sure there was always only going to be one winner.

Leigh's customary slow start set the tone for what was to follow.

John Costello knocked on from the kick off; Phil Kendrick gave away a penalty on the first tackle from the first scrum and Anthony Murray followed suit by stealing the ball in front of his own posts.

Two-and-a-half minutes gone and Leigh hadn't had one play and were 2-0 down.

Leigh did manage to settle into some sort of pattern and drew level with a Paul Wingfield penalty before things turned nasty.

Stuart Donlan claimed his was bitten on the forearm by an opponent and sparked off a crazy few seconds where David Hill felled Mark Wallace with a high tackle and fists flew in the melee that followed.

Referee Nick Oddy clearly hadn't a clue as to what had sparked the trouble and put the whole incident on report.

Just three minutes later Whitehaven went ahead again when John Allen slipped out of Kieron Purtill's tackle for a try that Hetherington goaled. Wingfield pulled two points back but a third Hetherington goal put Leigh 10-4 behind.

South Sea Islander David Fatialofa, hungrily feeding off the scuttling breaks of hooker Aaron Lester, was a real handful and when he took Colin Armstrong's reverse pass close to the line, he had the power to drive over for a six-pointer just before half time.

Leigh had barely seen the Warriors tryline in the first half, let alone threatened it. Yet two minutes after the break they were denied a try when Hetherington came up with a one-handed interception that stopped Tim Street going under the posts.

Street, however, was soon in the cooler - sin-binned for interference at the play-the-ball. Hetherington's penalty from in front and Wallace's simple try at the corner, put the game well out of Leigh's reach at 22-4.

When Leigh did get their attack in some sort of motion they were guilty of a glaring miss when somehow the outside backs contrived to botch up the massive overlap on the left.

Fatialofa again burst into action, setting up a try for Simon Knox before Leigh final broke through with sub John Gunning sending Kendrick over.

But Lester and Armstrong responded by cutting Leigh wide open up the middle and Gary Charlton strode through for a fifth Warriors try.

Just before the end Murray started and finished a Leigh move by somehow taking David Hill's return pass one handed to go over at the corner.

Leigh: Donlan; Hill, Kendrick, Purtill, Wingfield; O'Loughlin, Donohue; Street, Murray, Pucill, Whittle, Grundy, Costello. Subs (all used): Liku, Garcis, Gunning, Jenkins.

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