Leigh set the seal on a season of domination in the Kingstone Press Championship by beating their nearest rivals, Featherstone Rovers, in a hard-fought and compelling Grand Final at Headingley on Sunday night.
The Lancashire club, who had finished top of the league table with a single defeat in their 26 matches, surged to an 18-0 lead but were still given a real battle before late tries from Adam Higson, Sam Barlow and a 43rd of the season for the half-back Ryan Brierley took them clear in front of a near-10,000 crowd.
Both Leigh and Featherstone have earned substantial central funding for 2015 through their success this season which will allow them to operate with a full-time squad in a 12-team Championship that will also include London Broncos and Bradford Bulls, following their relegation from the Super League. Promotion to the Super League will be available for the first time since 2007, as part of a new structure under which the top four in the Championship will join the bottom four from the Super League two-thirds of the way through the season to form a new eight-team qualifying competition.
“It’s another memory we’ve made tonight in a memorable season and you couldn’t have done it with a better bunch of people,” said Paul Rowley, who served Leigh with distinction as a hooker and is now making an equally positive impression as their coach. “The future’s red and white. We’ve created a young team and we’ve got a good future together.”
Will Sharp, a former London Broncos wing, had dragged Featherstone back into the match with a try either side of half-time.
Earlier Hunslet had secured promotion to the Championship in dramatic fashion, beating Oldham 17-16 in a Championship One Grand Final that went into golden-point extra-time. Thomas Coyle, a scrum-half who includes Oldham among several former clubs, kicked the winning drop goal after scoring one try and making another in normal time, condemning the Roughyeds to their seventh defeat in as many Grand Final appearances.
They will, therefore, start another season in the third tier of the professional game, in the semi-professional Championship One which will also include five teams who have been relegated from this season’s Championship – Barrow, Swinton, Rochdale, North Wales Crusaders and Keighley, although the last are still pursuing legal action – as well as newcomers in the Coventry Bears.
