Leigh XV 7 Chorley 10

AN INJURY to John Witts could not stop Chorley's 14 remaining men from beating Leigh in rugby union.

Leigh kicked off in bright sunshine, Chorley caught the ball and went straight on the offensive.

But five minutes in to the game Witts had to leave the field injured after a collapsed scrummage.

A 30-minute war of attrition ensued with Chorley always in the ascendancy. Camped deep in the Leigh half, several opportunities to score went begging -- Roberts came within inches and Jackson dropped the ball over the line.

Leigh held out bravely, but were unable to clear their lines and Chorley finally scored a well-worked forwards try. Stuart Moore added the conversion for Chorley to be 7-0 up at half-time.

Leigh began to gain the upper hand in the second half as the big pitch took its toll on Chorley. A rare foray into the Leigh half on the hour led to a Chorley penalty, which Moore duly kicked to put Chorley ten points clear. But Leigh always looked likely to score and the inevitable happened with about 15 minutes left on the clock. After a brief period of Chorley pressure, Leigh counter attacked down the left wing and their full back broke through a Chorley defence in disarray for a converted try.

With everything to play for, the home side threw everything they had in to attack, but Chorley held their line to the final whistle for a well deserved victory.

In the seconds, Chorley A won the toss, Leigh kicked off and the game was tight right from the start.

Chorley's forwards dominated the early exchanges and broke the strong Leigh defence mid-way through the first half for a try by Bernard Hyam -- who threw a dummy, sidestepped and accelerated clear to touch down under the sticks. Bill Eastham converted.

In spite of a lack of aggression from some of the home forwards, Chorley continued to dominate proceedings in the second half and were rewarded with a superb individual try from potential young player of the year, Andy Kavanagh.

But despite continuing to dominate the game Chorley succumbed to a late blindside try from the Leigh loose forward.

Chorley dug deep to hang on for a hard earned 14-10 victory, but skipper O'Reilly remarked afterwards that it was not the A team's best performance in recent weeks.

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