LEIGH are ready to pitch another teenager in at the deep end when they tackle Swinton Lions at the first stage of Route Two to Wembley.

Teenager Mark Kay is pencilled in for his full debut as replacement for the injured David Hill in Sunday's first round of the Silk Cut Plate competition.

Full-back Hill will be out for around three weeks after suffering a badly gashed thigh in last weekend's Challenge Cup KO by Sheffield Eagles.

That defeat put Leigh into the inagural Plate tournament for first and second division clubs and gives them a second chance of reaching the Twin Towers with the final played as a curtain-raiser to the Challenge Cup showdown in May.

Kay, a former BARLA youth international, is likely to get the nod in a line-up that shows just one other change from the side beaten by the Eagles. Paul McLoughlin comes in on the left wing for Mark Sarsfield.

But Kay would have had to wait a little longer had Leigh's new Aussie trialist, Paul Abercrombie, been eligible to play.

Abercrombie is on trial at Hilton Park after glowing references from Great Britain centre Barrie-Jon Mather, now a team-mate at Perth Western Reds. But Abercrombie signed too late to be included on Leigh's cup register.

Coach Keith Latham will wait until after tomorrow's final training session to check on the fitness of stand-off David Ingram (groin and ankle) and Jimmy Veikoso (flu).

"Both should be OK," he says. "We're all looking forward to Sunday's game because we've got something to prove to the public after last weekend's big defeat. We're a better side than the scoreline suggested."

LEIGH LINE-UP: Kay; Purtill, Veikoso, Donlan, McLoughlin; Ingram, O'Loughlin; Street, Bannister, Pucill, Smith, McGughan, Jukes. Subs: Hilton, Daniel, Liku, TBA.

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