Cougars 20, Leigh 20

cougars got 1999 underway with a tough highly combative and thoroughly absorbing warm-up game.

Despite indications the final scoreline which suggested a 'very friendly' pre-season encounter, this was no throw it about light weight encounter, at times it was as intense as any league or cup game, and it more than served it's purpose.

Coach Lee Crooks said: "There were some good things and some bad things to come out of the game.

"It was certainly a lot better than I anticipated and although we let our intensity drop, and made some silly mistakes I was pleased with how it went.

"If you consider that we had six players out of action and the young lads who came in have little or no experience at this level -- and that we'd only had three training sessions where we've run the ball -- then I think this game more than served it's purpose.

"Woody and Ramshaw looked sharp, Schicky put in some good yardage and the kids didn't look out of place, although the Leigh pack was much bigger than ours I don't think that affected us, and young Stevie Campbell went well.

"Hunslet will be a real test though. They will be at full strength and we should have three or four players back. They should be a top four team this year and the game will really tell us how much we've got to do."

For the first 20 minutes on Sunday Martin Wood marked his return to Cougar Park with a spectacular show, scoring two tries and making another.

It was just like the good old days, but the Cougars had to jolt the enthusiastic crowd back to reality by almost engineering their own downfall either side of the break.

Wood, got the scoring underway when his grubber kick hit the post, and his was the first of many hands to the ball.

A sweet long pass from Jason Ramshaw, and a well timed run into the gap saw Wood over for his second. Both tries were converted by Nathan Antonik, and with only 17 minutes on the clock the Cougars were looking good.

Ten minutes later a rebounding Wood kick fell into the grateful arms of another returning Cougar Old Boy, Stevie Hall, who crashed over out wide.

Leigh gradually came alive, aided by one or two errors, and it was no surprise when Tau Liku ran in after good crossfield passing in the 38th minute.

What was a surprise was the Matt Foster error which gifted them their second try 90 seconds later, the full back dropping the ball behind his own line. Saf Patel dived on the ball for probably the easiest try of his life, converted by Paul Winfield.

That simple try made the score 16-10 at the break and suddenly the Cougars had a game on their hands.

It got worse. Craig Dean's lovely pass sent David Whittle racing under the posts, and Wingfield's second goal levelled the score.

The Cougars fought back and regained the lead when giant centre Kris Kirk crashed over out wide in the 62nd minute, a long pass from Wood creating the overlap.

They then looked like they were going to cling on to victory, but despite heroic defence they could not withstand 10 minutes of constant Leigh pressure.

A Cougar hand knocked the ball down and from the scrum, Dean sent Kieran Purtill racing in. Luckily the conversion was too wide out for Winfield, and a draw was the fairest result.

There were a lot of positive things to come out of the match, and one or two less positive things that will either come with more games under their belt or fine tuning from Crooks and his staff.

Two things that will have pleased the Directors, obviously the gate, over 2000 for a friendly on a mucky, cold January afternoon was great and shows the potential should Crooks' team enjoy a succesful season. The other thing was the number of players that have come through the academy, seven in all, is reward for their vision, and patience, as well as justification for their decision to run both academy and under 21 teams this season.

Cougars: Foster: Longo, Smith, Wainwright, Calvert; Tyrer, Antonik; S.Campbell, Ramshaw, M.Campbell, Schick, Rich, Wood. Subs (all used): Robinson, Owen, Kirk, Hall.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.