Leek 2's make it 3 on the bounce

Leek welcomed Willenhall to Esterchem Park looking to win their first home game of the season.

The front row was the same as last week with, Lee Williams, Joe Cooper and Jase Milner starting and the returining Dave Woolley on the bench. In the second row Ben Barlow partnered Tom Sims who is still getting over a nasty infection in his leg. The back row was compiled of the young James and Nick Thompson and the evergreen Neil Edge. Ollie Drew partnered Jack 'Wiffa' Winfield in the half backs with Nick Palmer and Phil Beard in the centres leaving a very young back three of Tom Fairhurst, Dan Sharratt and Jack Newton Taylor. The bench was made up Dave Woolley, Daniel Needham, Liam McDermott, Phil Tomczak and Simon Drew.

The game started in Willenhall's favour as they looked to dominate set pieces, particularly utilising the catch and drive. Halfway through the first period the deadlock was broken thanks to a penalty try for Willenhall, following a quick succession of penalties in the Leek red zone which also saw Ollie Drew sin binned. Willenhall opted for a scrum five metres out which they used to push Leek backwards, a dubious infringement by Neil Edge at the back of the scrum saw the referee give the penalty try. 0-7

In some ways Leek were glad to get this period of the match out of the way as Willenhall's heavier pack was now starting wain. Jack Winfield kicked off deep into the Willenhall half, still high on confidence from their score the Willenhall pack tried to zig-zag their way up the pitch. As they reached the half way the referee gave Leek a penalty for an infringement at a ruck. Jack Newton Taylor, deputising in Ollie Drew's absence, took a quick tap and go and evaded the entire Willenhall back line to score under the posts. Jack Winfield added the extras to make it 7-7.

From the restart, James Thomson caught the high ball and popped to the on rushing Nick Thompson, the resulting quick ball saw Leek's backs use the space out wide allowing Dan Sharratt a free run at the fullback, he opted to chip and chase but was illegally brought down, however Nick Palmer latched on the ball and scored a simple try under the posts. Jack Winfield added the additional points to make it 14-7.

From this point on Leek dominated proceedings, especially when back up to 15 men. The second half finished with a flurry for Leek as Joe Cooper powered over for his first of the season and Nick Palmer scored another break away try under the posts. Jack Winfield's exemplary kicking saw both conversions scored for Leek to go in 28-7 at half time.

Earlier in the season Leek had played a similar game against Newcastle which saw them loose a similar deficit and ultimately the match. However captain Neil Edge was adament in his half time team talk that the effort and attitude needed to remain to see the game out. A series of changes were made to keep up the tempo as Simon Drew, Liam McDermott, Phil Tomczak all came on for Nick Thompson, Tom Fairhurst and Ben Barlow.

What followed in the second half was a procession of expansive attacking rugby by Leek against the forward centric rugby played by Willenhall. Leek scored an additional 5 tries in the second half, Phil Beard and Dan Sharratt both scored 2 whilst Jack Newton Taylor scored his second. Jack Winfield scored all but one of the conversions to make it 61-7.

With the last play of the game Willenhall finished as they started, scoring from a driving maul which saw all 15 of their players push Leek back. The game ended 61-12 in Leek's favour.

Captain Neil Edge was happiest with his teams performance saying "It's great to win, but better to win as a team. I am delighted with the performances from our young players especially the two 17 year olds, Jack Winfield and Dan Sharratt who between them scored 26 points today.

Leek's next game is away at Shrewsbury and is merit table match.