Leigh storm to a huge victory over Thunder

NEWCASTLE Thunder’s difficult season continued as league leaders Leigh Centurions ran rampant at Kingston Park, inflicting a 0-60 loss on the embattled Tynesiders.

With the visitors having lost only once all season, anything but a defeat was always going to be a tall order for a patched-up Newcastle side.

However, a second heavy loss in a week will be of huge disappointment to all at the club.

Adding insult to injury, the hammering came in front of one of the highest attendances of the season as 2,127 filed through the turnstiles as Thunder hosted its annual Moody Cup festival pre-match.

Thunder were much improved from their lethargic performance against London Broncos on the same ground a week earlier and made a solid start.

However, Leigh took the lead with nine minutes gone as Joe Wardle finished off a midfield break by Lachlan Lam.

The steady pace of scoring continued with John Asiata’s close-range barge on 15 minutes and Tom Amone’s score off an Aaron Smith offload close to the Thunder line on 21 minutes.

Solid defending from Thunder shut down promising moves from the visitors but a knock-on close to the line gave Leigh the platform to run in the fourth try as the ball was worked right from the midfield scrum to Tom Nisbet.

When Thunder gave away a penalty with the final play of the half, a sweetly struck penalty added to a comfortable lead that had been built with relative ease.

Leigh were quick out of the blocks in the second 40 as they put boot to ball, a strong kick-on the last from Lam being volleyed forward off the second bounce by Sam Stone.

It set up a footrace with Gideon Boafo chasing back for the hosts but Stone had enough of a start to collect and ground comfortably.

The first of a quick-fire double, the second was a superb solo score from Edwin Ipape who kicked his way out of an attempted tackle for his first of two four-pointers.

A trip from Umyla Hanley made an uphill task more mountainous just before the hour as Newcastle conceded three tries, all converted while down a man.

Josh Charnley was first to go over as the ball was worked quickly to his wing off a midfield scrum before Ipape again used his physical presence to barge over from close range.

The blitz was complete as Lam, who had been pulling the strings superbly, latched on to an offload from Kai O’Donnell to sprint clear.

Tom Nisbet’s second try of the game with eight minutes proved to be the final word in the fixture.