With the game between Halifax and the Dewsbury Rams falling victim to the weather, and being re-scheduled for Tuesday evening, the remaining games were all played out on Sunday afternoon.
The late kick off was between the divisional new boys as Oldham travelled to Whitehaven, but there was plenty to whet the appetite in the afternoon matches. Bradford had a home game against Featherstone Rovers while the Sheffield Eagles looked to upset Touluse as they visited South Yorkshire.
Batley were at home to Swinton while there was the promise of two battle royal’s as York City Knights went to Leigh, and London were in Widnes to play the Vikings.
Few would have predicted the one-sided game at the Leigh Sports Village as the Centurions hammered the York City Knights and kept them pointless over the eighty minutes. A brace from Forsyth in the first half had given Leigh a 10-0 lead and York kept them to that until almost the hour mark. But then the floodgates opened as Thornley, Hood, Hellewell and Wildie all scored four pointers, Reynolds adding four conversions, for a 34-0 win.
London had the best of starts at Widnes and thanks to tries from Walters, Dixon, Fozzard, Battye and Pelissier they were 26-0 ahead at the interval and had the game in the bag against a shell-shocked Widnes. Cross got one back for the Vikings early in the second half, but Egodo re-established the margin ten minutes later. Owens, for Widnes, and Aston exchanged late tries as the Broncos took the win to maintain their one hundred percent record and take the points.
Toulouse Olympique XIII also maintained their unbeaten start to the season as they put the Sheffield Eagles to the sword. A brace from Robin and a try from Bell established a 20-0 lead for the visitors but a McComb try gave them a lifeline just before the break. Farrell further reduced the arrears but it was as close as Sheffield would get, Worrincy and Marcon swapping late tries to leave Toulouse with a 26-14 winning margin.
A four try first half won the game for Batley Bulldogs as they took a 20-0 lead over Swinton. Campbell (2), Manning and Ward all scored first half tries, despite the home side being down to twelve men on two occasions. Cox and Halton scored second half tries for Swinton but they still went down by 20-10.
It was a nailbiter of a game as Bradford took on Featherstone Rovers. McLelland and Hamilton had overcome two sin-binnings for Featherstone to give them a 12-0 lead. Doyle grabbed one back for Bradford in the dying moments of the half and after the Milnes conversion the home side trailed by 6-12 at the break. Lilley got the Bulls back on level terms after forty-five but two quick tries from Bussey and Hall for Rovers edged them just out of reach. Pickersgill and Dawson-Jones set up a grandstad finish as the sides entered the last ten minutes at 22-24, but a Blackmore try on seventy-four sealed the Featherstone win as they went two wins from two games.
The final game of the say was up in Whitehaven where the visitors Oldham secured a 16-14 win. Full match report here.
