CONFIDENCE shot to pieces, Leigh fell away badly to be rolled over for an eighth successive game.

So fragile is Leigh's self-belief these days that not even an encouraging first 40 minutes could lift their spirits.

They were only six points adrift at the break but a long list of unforced second half errors handed Hull KR a 48-20 victory on a plate.

"We were well in with a shout at half-time," confirmed coach Norman Turley. "But two bad mistakes at the start of the second half cost us 12 points.

"We'd shot ourselves in the foot again."

He was right. Unless Leigh find a solution to their long list of mistakes, it's hard to see from where the next win is coming.

Leigh have now leaked 374 points in losing their last eight matches. And, until they address that defensive problem, they'll struggle to win any game.

Yet in the first half they slugged it out every inch of the way with second-placed Rovers, and, given a bit of luck, could have gone in on level terms.

They'd done well to recover from an early 8-0 deficit with Chris Charles adding two goals to a sparkling Rob Danby touchdown that came at the end of a mesmerising 10-man move.

Not surprisingly, Tim Street sparked Leigh's recovery. Celebrating his 30th birthday, Street - employed in an rare second-row role - blasted through wide out after Kieron Purtill and James Arkwright had worked a move. Paul Wingfield goaled.

But enter Stanley Gene. The Papua New Guinea international scored twice in a matter of minutes and then crash tackled Stuart Donlan at the corner to stop a certain score at the other end.

With Charles adding the goals in reply to a Wingfield penalty, Rovers were almost out of sight at 20-8.

But Leigh gave themselves something to cling to when Arkwright, showing the sort of form that persuaded Leigh to take him from St Helens, side-stepped his way through and gave half-back partner Purtill an easy try.

Leigh, however, couldn't sustain their recovery and two glaring errors at the start of the second half deflated them completely.

Wingfield lost possession at first receiver from a scrum close to Leigh's line and Paul Fletcher went over. And, if that wasn't bad enough, the unlucky Wingfield accidentally kicked possession back to Rovers from the re-start and Mike Dixon punished them with another touchdown.

When sub Danny Brown crossed just before the hour, Rovers were in total control.

Arkwright did his best to stem the flow of points at one end by picking his way through the Rovers defence from 20 metres to collect a deserved individual try.

But that was it for Leigh. They had nothing left in the tank.

And in the final 10 minutes Hull KR piled on the agony with further tries from Howard Hill and Gene, his third of the game and 20th of the season.

Picture shows Leigh hooker Anthony Murray darting clear of a Hull KR tackle.

LEIGH: Bowker; Hill, Donlan, Hadcroft, Wingfield; Arkwright, Purtill; Grundy, Murray, Pucill, Street, Liku, Costello. Subs: Burrows, Gunning, Bent, Garces.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.