Leigh Centurions 34 York Wasps 14

DEAN Purtill again took the scoring honours as Leigh cruised to a fifth straight win but it was up front where the real heroes were found.

Winger Purtill collected two tries and five goals to take his season's tally to exactly 200 points and keep him right on target to beat Chris Johnson's club record of 400 set 12 years ago.

But the real foundation for the victory that keeps Leigh in the thick of the promotion battle was built around a mighty pack performance.

Props Andy Pucill and Tim Street took the sting out of the big York six up front, allowing second rower Tau Liku and loose-forward Paul Daniel to punch the holes up the middle.

"The York pack came with a big reputation. They scored over 70 points last week and really fancied their chances," said Leigh coach Keith Latham.

"But they tried to mix it up front - and lost hands down! Once we started to get on top after half time there was always only going to be one winner." Loan rangers Steve Gibson and John Gunning also played crucial roles with Aussie full-back Gibson a calming influence at the back and stand-off Gunning full of creativity against a tiring defence.

Gunning had a direct hand in four of Leigh's five second half tries as they enjoyed a relatively trouble-free second period after holding a slender 10-8 interval lead.

York stayed well in contention until the final quarter but once centre Peter Walsh had been sent off for throwing a punch at Street, the Wasps crumbled.

It was all in stark contrast to the first half which saw just two tries scored.

York stunned Leigh by taking a 6-0 lead inside seven minutes with winger Chris Hopcutt squeezing over in the corner and Alex Green knocking over a penalty.

But a burst of 10 points in as many minutes saw Leigh hit the front. Gibson smuggled a peach of a pass out of a two man tackle for Daniel to burst over and three goals from Purtill made it 10-6. A second Green penalty closed the gap still further but Leigh began the second half as they meant to go on with Gunning's clever footwork releasing Liku; the big Tongan in turn unselfishly putting Daniel in for his second.

Daniel was denied a hat-trick because of a poor pass from Ingram but the same combination quickly made amends with the stand-in winger slipping inside three men after taking Daniel's overhead pass.

York made Leigh sweat again when sub Colin Brown picked his way through a transfixed defence to cut the lead to 18-14.

But the dismissal of Walsh was the signal for Leigh to cut loose.

Gunning's bullet pass put Jimmy Veikoso over; Purtill collected another long pass from the stand-off to slip over at the flag but Leigh saved the best for last with Gibson and Gunning combining perfectly to send Purtill flying to the posts from 40 metres.

Leigh: Gibson; Purtill, Veikoso (Sarsfield 70), Blackburn, Ingram; Gunning, O'Loughlin; Street, Bannister (Brown 70), Pucill, McGughan (Smith 13), Liku (McAvoy 48), Daniel. Attendance:1240.

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