Leigh claim first away win of season at York

Betfred Super League

York (6) 6

Tries: Va'a Goals: Harrison

Leigh (8) 18

Tries: O'Brien, Charnley, Alick-Wiencke Goals: A Cook 3

Leigh Leopards' attack proved too strong for York Knights as they won 18-6 to claim their first away victory of the Super League season.

Full-back Gareth O'Brien nipped through to put the Leopards in front in a first half where both sides had to be patient in their build-up play.

A try from Xavier Va'a put York on the board, only for the prop to see yellow moments later, allowing the visitors go in 8-6 in front at the break.

The visitors capitalised on tired legs to turn the screw in the second half, with tries from Josh Charnley and Jacob Alick-Wiencke making their winning margin more comfortable and helping them move up to 10th in the table.

In the first Super League meeting between the teams, York looked the more confident early on, but O'Brien escaped away from Ata Hingano's tackle to score the first try against the run of play.

The hosts were then given a reprieve when Lachlan Lam was called offside when touching the ball down after it had ricocheted around following Edwin Ipape's kick through.

York rallied to respond, with Va'a crashing over for their first score.

Myles Harrison then converted with his first points in Super League to make it 6-6 with half an hour played.

But the scores were not level for long, as Va'a was sin-binned after a late shoulder tackle on O'Brien, and Adam Cook slotted the penalty between the posts.

Some home fans were surprised not to see a further card when Leigh's Joe Ofahengaue appeared to make contact with Sam Cook's head, but nothing was given.

One positive for the hosts was the return from injury of energetic full-back David Nofoaluma, who made a try-saving tackle to thwart visiting winger AJ Towse.

But Charnley made amends on the right-hand side when he found space to break York's defensive line and crash over, with Alick-Wiencke powering through for a try moments later.

The Knights tried to cut the deficit late on, but prop Paul Vaughan grounded the ball just short of the line.

Adrian Lam's side may not have been spectacular on the night, but their pressure was unrelenting for long spells, allowing them to claim a third win of the season following home victories over Leeds Rhinos and Toulouse.

York Knights head coach Mark Applegarth told BBC Radio York:

"Congratulations to Leigh, I thought it was two desperate teams going at each other.

"That was more like us tonight. I don't think you could ask for more in terms of effort.

"Ultimately, Leigh iced their moments and we didn't. I thought [their] game management that last 20 minutes was excellent.

"Some of the skill execution off the back of that, you have got to tip your hat to them and make sure that is us in the next game."

Leigh Leopards head coach Adrian Lam told BBC Radio Manchester:

"To come up here, it was always going to be a big challenge, and then Robbie Mulhern pulling out just before kick-off was another challenge.

"We just hung in there collectively as a group. I'm very proud of them.

"We are getting better each week and we held them only to one try.

"It's going to take time, we don't have much of that, but I'm grateful that we held them to nil in that second half.

York: Nofoaluma; Harrison, Buchanan, Wood, Galeano; Hingano, Hunter; Martin, McShane, Vaughan, Field, Dee, Littlewood.

Interchanges: Balmforth, Griffin, Va'a, S Cook.

Sin-bin: Va'a (29).

Leigh: O'Brien; Towse, Senior, Hughes, Charnley; A Cook, Lam; Ofahengaue, Ipape, Mulhern, Halton, Trout, Liu.

Interchanges: McNamara, Brogan, Alick-Wiencke, Horne.

Referee: Tara Jones.