No surprises on either side, for me the Leigh 4 missers would be Woods, Spencer,Mullen, and Field, time to play a mean game hopefully on a fast pitch.
The Fax squad are not that worrying , honestly how many of the Fax squad would get into our starting 17.?None.
For me Leigh win by at least 20.

Fax came with a game plan and played it to a tee.

The also played some very good quick rugby.

Our performance was the antithesis of the last few home matches. Penalties galore (deserved or not), cards (deserved) and a bit of sloppy defending.

BUT...

This was a very important test and a good one to come through. The team pitched in after Sammut's red and were generally very good in defense and attack. Calmer heads prevailed so JD came through big with his half time talk.

Could see him going mental on the sidelines after Fax scored their last try, rightfully so.

As far as I'm concerned if they gave Fax's two tries in the corner then ours should have clearly been awarded, I was sat with a clear sight of the touchline and our player (sorry, forgot who), was nowhere near it and he made the try line too.

Ben really is quite the player now, especially losing our other pivot and having to restructure.

Addy with the full 80, though I don't know if he was put on report for cleaning out Murrell as I thought it was AJ (again).

Junior stood out most for me I have to say, though Ioane did deserve his MoM.

North stand quiet until the biff and a bit sp (probably in the pub watching the derby), so the 3000+ was probably aided by a good Fax following.

We'll need to play smarter in the coming matches, especially against Fev and TO and with impending suspensions it is good to have a bit of depth to the squad now.

Sammut - was going well I felt, solid in attack and defence, but his dander was up by the Fax tactics and he can have no excuse for his tackle, some solid strength in the lad to do that though.

I'll say "well played" for what the match as a whole was.

Once again Deeeekers an excellent summary.

Cheers.

On final thing...we did just beat Fax with one less player for a full 40, that really does highlight the full team effort.

Jeez I hope we don`t get that Vella again. I forgot how much of a bell whiff that Tyrer is!!

Fair play to Mark Ione: he put in two good spells. However, how you could look beyond Addy or Reynolds for MOM is beyond me. Hard to single players out really though Jordan Thompson is twice the player he was when he came back last year. The great thing is we know we have real character and heart in the team. Until Fax's last ditch try we were leading the second half 20-4 with a man short: pretty impressive that. Furthermore, every try was real quality.

First game of season for me:

Reynolds looks a different player, a lot more confident and making the right calls - lucky to still have his head after Larroyer, that looked a disgusting challenge and should have been a red for me

Addy took a breather for 10mins or so, but shines as a proper loose forward, heart engine and hands, looks a very astute signing

Ref lost the plot and probably responsible for a lot of the indiscipline

If we play like that against the top sides we will get beat, but if we hit our stride and retain discipline that team will take some beating

Did Cam Scott play centre or wing?
Did Bienek play many minutes?

Scott played on wing, and is a very good finisher - 3 tries today, and pretty sure a disallowed try was fine as well. Not sure if he lacks a yard of pace but looks a very good all round player

Bienek only came on at about 55 mins, did 10 mins, went off and did last 5. Makes good yards but if that’s the best engine he’s got he’s going to struggle at anywhere near the top level

Disallowed try was Mullen, Col.

Well it still looked like a try

I thought the ref dealt with it correctly, I do not have Laroyer marked as a dirty player , I certainly did not see any malice in it. Shoulder barge, mistimed at worse, correct call.

What did you see ?

I had a brief chat with Kevin in the legends bar after the match , told him it was a shoulder

Is leading with the shoulder not banned - and to mis-time it to the head seems like a very poor technique for someone who has been playing at the top level for some while - looked calculated and deliberate to me