VIKINGS VICTORIOUS

Leigh Centurions 6

A CROWD of over 5,000, a nail-biting conclusion and an interception winner from Paul Mansson sent the Vikings fans home happy at the Auto Quest Stadium on Sunday.

If fast flowing rugby and great handling moves are your cup of tea, then this wasn't the match for you.

If your tastes run to bone-crunching tackling, total commitment and a crackling atmosphere, you won't see better than this.

There will be lots for Colin Whitfield to get his teeth into when he watches the video but the most important thing was coming out with the right result - the Vikings third win against Leigh this season.

Widnes had the majority of play territorially in the first-half, but whenever they attempted to apply the killer touch in the Leigh '20', pedestrian execution of planned moves enabled the visitors to snuff out the opportunity.

The best chance of the half probably fell to Peter Smith but he couldn't hold on to Damian Munro's inside pass after the full-back had made a half-break from a scrum in the 13th minute.

The Centurions' best opportunities came when their superior kicking game put pressure on the Vikings line but Widnes kept them out on each occasion.

The only score of the half came a minute before the interval when Mark Hewitt made it 1-0 with an opportunist drop-goal.

The second-half began with Widnes on the attack and swift passing put Simon Verbickas across in the left corner only to be called back for a forward pass which must have been a borderline decision.

On 51 minutes the visitors got their nose in front - a missed attempt to intercept by Mansson allowed second-row Paul Anderson to burst through the defensive line and his inside pass bounced into the hands of substitute Sarfraz Patel who touched down, Paul Wingfield converted.

The thunder storm that broke at half-time had turned the ball into a bar of soap and both sides struggled to hold on for a full set of six.

It was hardly ideal conditions for playing catch-up rugby and the Vikings' attempts frequently fell foul of handling mistakes.

However, on the hour mark Mansson made up for his earlier blunder.

Picking off an ill-judged pass from Patel 30 metres out, the Kiwi stand-off sped away from the cover to score by the post, Hewitt converted.

With a precarious lead of just 7-6, and still a quarter of the match to play, it was finger nail chewing time.

The amount of spilled ball was almost becoming a joke and the Vikings coaching staff may reflect in hindsight that with conditions the way they were, position was more important than possession.

A kick into the Leigh danger zone early in the tackle-count would surely have been the sensible tactic, forcing the Centurions to run the ball away from their own line - almost certainly resulting in a knock-on.

On 66 minutes, Phil Cantillon thought he had scored as he followed up a Paul Hulme kick but was correctly adjudged offside.

Widnes got the penalty however for an earlier infringement and Hewitt increased the lead to 9-6.

The last 15 minutes saw the Vikings constantly putting themselves under pressure as they persistently spilled the ball or were penalised.

With time running out, Peter Smith came to the rescue as he knocked a cross-field kick out of play with the Leigh chasers ready to pounce.

When the hooter finally sounded after what seemed like an hour of injury time, the ground erupted to acclaim a hard won Widnes victory.

One can't help feeling a little sorry for Leigh.

They are clearly a well coached side and in terms of gamesmanship there is little they're not up to - from throwing an extra ball on to stop the game when the opposition tries to take a quick tap, to shaking the goal posts to put off a goalkicker.

The Vikings may not have seen the last of them yet.

Widnes: Munro; P Smith, Percival, Briers, Verbickas; Mansson (1t); Hewitt (2g, 1dg); Hansen; Cantillon; Savelio; Mann; Adams; Hulme; Subs: Myler; D Smith; Hassan; Hill.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.