The opening round of the Kingstone Press Championship couldn't have hoped for a bigger fixture as the Bradford Bulls travelled to Leigh Sports Village for the clash of the two favourites to finish the first part of the season at the top of the pile.

But there was plenty more interest around the league as newly relegated London Broncos hosted Doncaster, Halifax travelled to Whitehaven and Workington went in the opposite direction as they visited Batley.


Almost seven and a half thousand, a crowd which would put several Super League clubs to shame, turned up at the Leigh Sports Village to see whether their side could compete with the newly relegated Bradford Bulls.

Bradford dominated the first half and went into the break with a commanding 20-6 lead thanks to tries from O'Brien, Walker, Uaisele and Mullally, the only response from the home side being a try from Brierley. But this was the archetypal game of two halves, as Leigh dominated the second forty.

Tries from Kay, McNally (2), Armstrong and Penkywicz sealed a convincing 36-24 win and first blood for Leigh in what the bookies see as a two-horse race for the top spot.

Down in the capital the Broncos withstood a spirited second half fightback from Doncaster to take the two points by 26-22. Nasso, Harrison and Williams (2) had given the home side a impressive 20-0 lead at half time. The Broncos also scored the first try of the second half through Naiqama for 26-0 but Doncaster ran in four tries of their own in the last twenty-seven minutes through Paleaaesina, Doherty (2) and Waterman to give the Londoners a real scare.

It was a bad day for the Championships Cumbrian sides.

Workington went down heavily by 30-6 at Batley despite taking the lead after seventeen minutes through Phillips. Four tries from Squires and one by Bretherton, two minutes from time, eased the home side to a comfortable win.

Whitehaven were at home and entertained Halifax, but it was a confident performance from the away side who scored forty-four of the games sixty points for a comfortable win. Tyler, Greenwood, Saltonstall (2), Brown (2), Robinson (2), and Ambler all made it over the whitewash for the visitors while Burns, Johnson and Gore scored for the home side.

Tomorrow night sees the concluding Round One fixture when Featherstone play Hunslet with a 19:30 kick off.