Leigh kicked off the league season with an away day to take on Medway IV. In true local rugby style, the day commenced with Captain Alastair Mackenzie being stranded outside a pub due to ‘miscommunication’ around transportation. Nevertheless, the squad arrived excited to get going in the league and put to work the learning points and development gained in preseason.

Leigh took the kick off, and not realising the pitch was shorter than the Field of Dreams, Fly Half Thomas Erskine assisted by the strong wind, kicked the ball dead, and scrums were the order of the day largely for the first half - with the Leigh forward pack holding their own against the larger scrum of Medway.

Medway gave a strong display of running rugby, keeping tight support lines and offloading superbly to run in 3 tries in the first 20 minutes of the game, before Leigh got a chance to have the ball for any representative period of time. However, after some strong phase play from the forwards, Thomas Erskine found some space and split the Medway line with some excellent footwork to open the account for the league season, converting his try and bringing the score to 17-7.

Leigh turned up the wick after this and Alastair Mackenzie added another score with a breakaway try, bringing the score to 17-12.

The remainder of the game saw a total lack of structure and became hugely stop-start in nature with a large amount of off the ball incidents, referee interventions and a number of injuries to the Leigh squad.

The Leigh boys kept their heads up however and did not rise to some of more 'old school' tactics employed by the Medway squad as the home side ran in 4 more tries across the match, bringing the final score to 43-12.

A special mention to Scrum Half Peter Ashby, who on his senior debut kept his cool and battled through a very tough ordeal with great maturity and skill. Hector Ashby continued his strong start to the season as well, with physicality and speed as he played across the backline over the match.

Man of the Match went to Charlie Parker, again showing his speed both on and off the ball, and making tackles across the park, often against men well over twice the size of him.

Leigh will go again next week, back in action at the Field of Dreams for a local derby, facing Tonbridge Juddians III - we hope to see you all there!