Leigh Centurions 19 Salford City Reds 36 by Mike Hulme: SADLY, the question has to be asked. Do Leigh have the temperament to hack it on the big occasion without losing their composure, and consequently, the match?

The statistics are saying no, they don't. Five finals in three years - and only one victory.

Despite all Leigh's bravado, that's just not good enough. This bridesmaid's business is starting to wear a little thin!

Leigh's inability to win the games that matter and the subsequent frustrations are starting to give them a bad name.

The RFL's disciplinary panel will deal with the matters arising from Sunday's bad-tempered final but many will have gone away convinced that the Centurions are bad losers. Last season's Grand Final is another case in point.

Leigh were not entirely blameless for the ugly scenes that punctuated the game, but it takes two to tango and Karl Harrison's assessment that his Salford side were the innocent party, doesn't entirely wash.

But it's Leigh who are likely to end up in disciplinary hot water with Phil Kendrick likely to have the book thrown at him for a high, late shot on Gavin Clinch while Sonny Nickle will have to sweat it out while a decision is made for his part in a brawl.

Coach Paul Terzis flatly denied that his team had aimed to take Clinch out of the game illegally.

"I didn't see the Kendrick incident as I was following the flight of the ball, but if he's done what people say, then I'm disappointed. It was certainly not in our game plan to go out there and hurt people. If we were the sinners, why did all the penalties from major incidents go our way?

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ut opposite number Harrison was more forthright. "I thought it was a disgraceful attempt to try and put Clinch out of the game."

But if that was the case, why did Leigh leave it until the 78th minute and after Clinch had masterminded another Salford win?

Terzis suggested that match referee Peter Taberner and his officials also played a part in the match boiling over. He said: "It's a tough game for tough men and it times it did get heated but sometimes it's just not the players who are involved in creating those situations."

It's a great pity that the final will be remembered for all the wrong reasons because when Leigh concentrate on the football they have the class and fire-power to trouble anyone. What they couldn't do on Sunday was play well enough for long enough.

They dominated field position for the entire opening quarter yet could only come up with one try and in the crucial period leading up to half time three individual errors cost them tries.

Leigh's inability to break Salford down in the first quarter probably had something to do with the fact that they lost one of their major play-makers John Duffy with a serious knee injury after only 11 minutes. It was a blow from which Leigh never fully recovered.

A couple of minutes later Leigh did make a breakthrough, but it was from their own tryline and was a stunning individual effort from Leroy Rivett. Clinch floated a kick to Leigh's right corner, Rivett came down with the ball and set off on a touchline sprint that saw him beat three defenders first off and Jason Flowers later before diving through one more tackle to score wide out.

Turley missed the angled conversion but soon afterwards took the decision to put over a one-pointer to extend the lead to 5-0. That really should have been 7-0 but they turned down a kickable penalty, ran the ball and saw Kendrick forced into touch on the third play.

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t proved a pivotal moment. They were made to pay almost immediately when big substitute Gareth Haggerty staggered over at the other end with a couple of Centurions hanging off him. It was a signal for the game's first all-in brawl. Were Leigh losing their big game focus again?

When the dust had settled Chris Charles kicked Salford into a 6-5 lead. It was a lead they were never to surrender.

Salford sensed their chance and when Leigh came up with three mistakes they were punished with three tries in seven minutes.

Cliff Beverley's long pass found Andy Coley and when Swann missed his tackle, the long-striding prop went in out wide.

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urley stopped Hunte in full cry on the next set but he was hopelessly outnumbered when Clinch stepped through one tackle on half way to launch the attack that ended with Danny Arnold sending Stuart Littler in.

Three minutes later Clinch again kicked on the last tackle, a wicked bounce beat Turley and Andy Kirk swooped. Steve Blakeley took over the kicking from Charles to make it 20-5 at half time.

Leigh needed to start the second half as well as they did the first - and to their credit they did. Five minutes into the second half they worked a blind-side move for Swann to muscle his way over to make it 20-9.

But crucially Leigh conceded again almost immediately when Beverley's dummy saw him slice through Leigh's defences and sent Arnold racing over. Blakeley's conversion and a penalty gave Salford a 15 point cushion.

Leigh showed considerable character by responding again. They forced successive goal-line drop outs and from the second set Pat Weisner shrugged off the tackle of Littler and fired out a long pass for Damian Munro to get over.

The game was ended as a contest just after the hour when Clinch survived a legitimate bell-ringer of a tackle from Kendrick and slipped a pass away for Hunte to get over near the flag.

Soon after the chaos started. There had already been two minor scuffles when Littler and Bryan Henare had their own private contest on the deck, Nickle became involved and sparring matches broke out all across the park.

In the aftermath Nickle and Hunte were sin-binned and Mr Taberner put the incident on report for later judgement.

The dust barely had time to settle before Leigh scored again, a neatly crafted effort that Turley finished well.

Blakeley kicked another penalty as the game threatened to boil over again. Moments later it did with Kendrick allegedly hitting Clinch with a raised forearm as the Aussie put in a deep kick.

SCORERS

Leigh: Tries - Rivett (13), Swann (45), Munro (57), Turley (72). Gls: Turley 1/4. FG: Turley.

Salford: Tries - Haggerty (24), Coley (30), Littler (34), Kirk (37), Arnold (48), Hunte (64). Gls: Charles 1/4, Blakeley 5/6.

Leigh: Turley; Munro, Hadcroft, Kendrick, Rivett; Weisner, Duffy; Nickle, Rowley, Ball, Richardson, Henare, Bristow. Subs (all used): Bradbury, Cardoza, Swann, Norman.

Salford: Flowers; Arnold, Littler, Hunte, Kirk; Beverley, Clinch; Baynes, Alker, Coley, Baldwin, P.Highton, Charles. Subs (all used): Blakeley, D.Highton, Berne, Haggerty.

Penalties conceded: Leigh 8, Salford 10.

Handling errors: Leigh 5, Salford 5.

Sin-bin: Nickle (Leigh), striking; Hunte (Salford), striking.

Sent off: Kendrick (Leigh), late tackle.

Referee: Peter Taberner (Wigan).

Attendance: 6486.

Man

rCAPTAIN Fantastic Adam Bristow ran himself to a standstill to try and rescue a lost cause.

Magic

rRIVETT'S length of the field effort gave Leigh just the start they needed. Pity they couldn't keep it going.

Moan

rTHE early loss of John Duffy with a knee injury put one of Leigh's best attacking weapons out of the game.