Sharing Orrell give game away

LEICESTER nowadays haven't much talent to amuse. They overpowered Orrell without having to take the slightest tactical risk and did little to embellish what we were repeatedly told was an historic occasion - the first rugby union club game at a professional rugby league stadium since the years when anything went. It threatens to be one of those dates in history as easy to forget as the Edict of Nantes.

In the early Sixties Griff Jenkins, the Wigan trainer, used to describe the club as "the Arsenal of the rugby league, or the Spurs if you like". Then he'd add, "Anyone who gets the chance to play for Wigan and doesn't take it, well, there's something wrong with him." Wigan in fact have weathered better than the other two, and Orrell must have felt that the same argument applied to a chance of playing at Wigan's Central Park. The clubs have always got on well on a personal level, and now it looks as though they will get even closer - sharing grounds, training and even some players. What was unthinkable a year ago, is now perfectly logical.

The first occasion on which they have publicly shown themselves as an item could have worked out better: not clashing with the Grand National or an early evening match for Wigan at Oldham for instance. As a result, the crowd (3,637) was only a little bigger than Orrell might have expected at Edge Hall Road.

The opening quarter won't have persuaded any curious rugby league fans that for over a century they have been missing one of the great entertainments of winter sport.

In that period, Leicester's John Liley kicked two penalties in reply to one from Simon Mason. But Leicester seemed to be passing with boxing gloves, and although their pack was able to roll Orrell's back, with Dean Richards absent it couldn't deliver the coup de grace.

The second quarter was no more compelling until there came an impromptu intervention by Rory Underwood just on the genuine rugby league half-time klaxon. Until then, Liley had added another penalty but missed two others, and the Leicester pack had driven a scrum over the Orrell line though somehow managed to leave the ball behind. Still, Underwood's instant pick- up of a pass put down by Orrell and the alacrity of his run to the corner, did stir a few memories.

It also made Leicester a little more adventurous in the second half, though one good move would be followed by another of dire hamfistedness. The wing forward John Wells was put over in the corner by his stand-off. Liley proved he had more in common with the great Dusty Hare than a high forehead when he side-stepped unaided through the centre for a solo try. And Underwood crossed for his second from another Orrell error. For Orrell, Graeme Smith went over from a tap penalty without even fractionally changing the course of the game. Just before the end spectators were asked not to invade the pitch. Fat chance.

Orrell: S Mason; R Mathias, L Tuigamala, P Johnson (capt), G Smith; P Hamer, G Povall; P Winstanley, A Moffatt, P Mitchell, S.Bibby, C Cooper, A Bennett, J Huxley, P Anglesea.

Leicester: J Liley; R Underwood (capt), J Overend, R Robinson, S Hackney; N Malone, A Kardooni; G Rowntree, R Cockerill, D Garforth, M Johnson, M Poole, W Johnson, J Wells, B Drake-Lee.

Referee: T Spreadbury (Somerset).