Clinical Hull KR beat Leigh to extend lead at top

Mikey Lewis contributed 18 points and provided an assist in Hull KR's emphatic win

Betfred Super League

Hull KR (22) 30

Tries: Gildart, Lewis 2, Tanginoa, Davies Goals: Lewis 5

Leigh (0) 0

Early Super League pacesetters Hull KR overpowered second-placed Leigh Leopards at Craven Park to go three points clear at the top of the table.

The victory extended Rovers' winning start to the Super League campaign to five matches and ended Leigh's unbeaten run.

Clinical in attack and resilient in defence, Rovers bossed the first half, as scores from Oliver Gildart, Kelepi Tanginoa and a Mikey Lewis double drove them into a 22-0 half-time lead.

Lewis put over a penalty in a quieter second half and then added a brilliant touchline conversion after Tom Davies dived over in the corner.

Victory would have taken Leigh above their hosts, but after their winning start was ended in a thrilling draw at Hull FC a fortnight ago, the Leopards were dismantled on their return to Humberside.

The Robins, who are also through to the Challenge Cup quarter-finals, were rewarded for a fast start when Gildart forced his way over for his fourth try of the season.

Sloppy defensive work from Leigh on their own line then allowed skipper Elliot Minchella - in his 100th Super League appearance - to offload in the tackle and give Lewis a walk-in.

Having been firmly under the pump, Leigh enjoyed an encouraging spell, with Bailey Hodgson reaching to dot down, but the Leopards' riposte was ruled out for a double movement.

The visitors were relieved to see Davies grass Tyrone May's pass as a length-of-the-field score beckoned, before Leigh spurned chances of their own.

Umyla Hanley broke the line, but chose not to pick out supporting runners before he was tackled, and seconds later, Lachlan Lam spilled the ball metres away from the whitewash.

Rovers absorbed the pressure and immediately stretched their lead, Lewis breaking through two tackles before a superb one-handed offload gave Tanginoa an easy run in.

A strong half was capped when a lightning quick attack down the left saw Joe Burgess chip over the top to give Lewis a clear run under the posts.

Rovers missed a couple of chances to extend their lead after the break, and then seemed happy to contain their visitors and chalked up a third shutout of the season.

But the hosts ended on the offensive, with James Batchelor's brilliant back-of-the-hand pass teeing up Davies' fourth score of the season.

Hull KR head coach Willie Peters told BBC Radio Humberside:

"Keeping a side like Leigh to zero is a difficult thing to do, but the players have done it again which is a credit for what they do in pre-season and what they do during the week. It's all about getting things right in defence and they did that today.

(On being the last unbeaten side): "It's early in the season and it's where we want to be, but we're certainly not getting carried away. We understand there's a lot of games ahead.

"But you can only play what's in front and in the first five weeks we've been able to go through unbeaten.

"There's a couple of games there we could easily have lost, but we found a way and now it's just about building and improving."

Leigh Leopards head coach Adrian Lam told BBC Radio Manchester:

"It's out of character, obviously, and very frustrating, disappointing - all the words that we haven't seen this year, so there's a lot to learn.

"We've done that a couple of times when we've come up here - not been us and just completely different to who we are and what we've been over the last six or nine months.

"Today we were off. There was no identity of us a club out there today.

"We've got a five-day turnaround and the great thing about rugby league is you get a chance to fix things almost straight away. We're going to hardly train in the period between now and then so it won't be too much coaching or training, it'll just be an attitude swing."

Hull KR: Broadbent; Davies, Hiku, Gildart, Burgess; Lewis, May; Sue, McIlorum, Waerea-Hargreaves, Hadley, Batchelor, Minchella.

Interchanges: Litten, Luckley, Whitbread, Tanginoa.

Leigh: Armstrong; Hodgson, Niu, Hanley, Brand; O'Brien, Lam; Trout, Ipape, Tuitavake, O'Neill, Hughes, Lui.

Interchanges: Pene, Brogan, Davis, Dwyer.

Referee: Liam Moore.