I have been amazed not to read the usual suspects talking about todays match. It maybe its me thats the chump but so far I havent seen anything. I thought the game was ok. 773 watching - not bad, when the gate was announced there was a polite ripple of applause. The man of the match was without question - Ryan Brierley's 4 tries were worth the admission money alone (and Ridyard's 3 weren't bad either). I thought the young lads were tremendous, especially the Aussie 2nd row from Leigh East. Leigh had a lot missing but were far too good for Avignon. The French lads are staying at the Park Inn - there until tomorrow when they will fly home - with fond memories of Leigh according to their President 'Phillipe' who spoke in French (with an interpreter) at the after the match presentions. Apparently tomorrow's match will decide the European Champions When Fev play Pia. Both finished top of their respective leagues so the winners will become the Champs. Was it a worthwhile competition - not sure, if it has cost Leigh Centurians money then no, there is more pressing matters in my view like Sheffield on Thursday night.

There's a bit of talk about the game on "Today's team" and the "Leigh v Avigion Live Updates" threads, but I think the low crowd (our lowest for a competitive game in 14 years, apparently) probably says it all about this competition. Nice to get a win and hopefully some prize money to come with it, and good for the younger lads to get the experience of playing a decent enough side. Just hope we avoided injuries ahead of what is a BIG game on Thursday.

Knowing the RFL their prize money will just about stretch to paying the winning bonus for the lads , glad you got the win though and hope you made a bob or two on the gate.I hear this is for 3 yrs as well isn`t it?

I was pleasantly surprised by the game and the way our 'scratch' side played. The flow didn't seem to be disrupted, despite having eleven of the first choice seventeen resting. Ryan actually got three tries, Ridyard three, Gallagher and McGilvray one each. Ridyard four goals and Brierley two.

For a makeshift side I take my hat off to the team and coaching staff. Standout for me were our No3, Gittins I think. Our No6, thought he was lively and a good passer even though he looked about 16 years old. No15 was it Burke he looks very good. Our No17 don't know his name but got though a ton of work and played the whole game I think. Very good to see John Duffy back on the field even though he had a heavily strapped up right shoulder. Young Singleton looks a good prospect. Not sure if Chris Wroe is a second rower like to see him at centre untill he gets bigger. That team showed a lot of bottle as I thought the wheels may have come off after the very first play when Tom Spencer took that big hit. Well played, well coached and I really enjoyed it.

Yeah, I thought it was a good game too, I was pretty entertained and it was nice to see some new blood in Leigh shirts, nobody let the side down.

Hats (or berets) off to Avignon as well, they didn't roll over and were tough tacklers - I thought their no. 10 and especially no. 12 were the stand outs for them, if I was Rowley I'd be seriously tempted to sign 12 up. He would have been the perfect replacement for Worrincy (although I'm not knocking the replacements we already got)

in response to TV Boy's comment about our No 6 looking about 16, thats because he is, Josh Ward from Leigh Miners 18's, been playing in Leigh 18's too.

Not convinced by the number 12, he was their Tefflon man and came up with the bulk of their handling errors. He seems well settled in France now, he's been there 5 years. Agree about their 10 though, Cagnac was his name and their 2 Liguoro looks to be a crowd pleaser.

There were some nice tries scored and good to see all our pivots being able to play in dinner suits.

I take my hats off to all the players that came in, but the competition in this format is rubbish.. now make it a clash between the two champions and you have something to market. This was in all intents and purposes a mid season friendly. Crazy!

Thanks. I can't get to the reserves or Miners/East games now I live so far away so forgive me for not knowing who these lads are. He's definitely one to watch, nice quick hands and fast accurate passing. Well done Josh.

Greg Burke, who we've got from Wiggin , looks a real good un.

Cannot believe Greg is only 19. Very promising indeed.

Thought yesterdays game was anything other than pointless after listening to a few earlier rants when it was first announced , when it gives us chance to blood some of our own youngsters and see how they go then it was well worth the while and for those who were more experienced the chance to blow away any cobwebs before Thursdays match.

Thought Josh Ward and some of the other young debutants played very well , look forward to seeing some of them breaking through to the 1st team on a more regular basis .

Will agree Brierleys 4 try haul and Riddys hattrick were well worth the gate fee , bank holiday jubilee weekend plus the fact the game was on tv , hardly surprising the low attendance that we got .
Let's hope a few more turn out next thursday

aye, his dad Mark 'runs' the Lancastrian Squash club (or whatever it's called now)
Does is still have a squash court ???

COBWEBS



There should be none of these approaching Thursdays game against the Seagulls, we are now entering the Make or Break part of our season , the lads will be Buzzing over the next couple of games .

Think it has about 3 squash courts budgie , think Josh is 17 and has been playing in under 18's team. Thought he was unlucky not to score yesterday and put some good pressure kicks in to pin the french back . Looks a very promising player , just hope he stays local

Over a week since they last played in the Championship , wasn't talking cobwebs by your standards

LOL , yes yes I'm a cheeky young whipper snapper n all that , give me a head start and I'll try to dodge your bullet Lol

Club needs an U23s if we are to keep these players

Needs one next year, but we should run a young team in it if we do have one

Without an academy team or u 21's we will continue to see talented young players being snapped up by the likes of Wire , Wigan and Saints while we pay for over the hill either aussies or ex SL has beens . Refreshing to see we have had none or little of those in the last cpl of seasons



Hope we hang on to our young stars = future of our team

anybody know the other results

Carcassonne 12 Sheffield 40

Toulouse 26 Halifax 58

Without wanting to make a song and dance about this... doesn't this comment show the A about T way clubs (and speccies) think?? (sorry JFFC).

IE, the prize money is what it is.... the club sets its win bonus knowing full well what the prize money is. It's not that the RFL money just about stretches to meet the bonus, it's that the clubs just about stretch their committed expenditure to swallow up all the money. And, very often, to leave them in debt.

I don't know if this is fact Wembley but I think that the clubs didnt know the format of the comp or how much money there was in the way of prizes untill they were well into the season, and I would have thought their budgets were already calculated by then.

A very good assessment of the situation.

I believe the RFL brought this competition in with the very best of intentions for the Championship clubs, but the practicalities reduced it to last weekend's format, which didn't generate the intended level of profit, all round.

You'll believe anything Alan.

Surely if this set of games was for the benefit of the champ clubs then all four would have been at home.As for the practicalities,the rfl had plenty of time to sort any problems out,failing that they could have postponed the comp til next year,i dont think anyone would really have cared