Edinburgh Monarchs v Leicester Lions

Report

LEICESTER put one foot into the Championship Grand Final with an impressive 53-36 win at Edinburgh at Armadale on Friday.

The Lions will look to complete the job when the sides meet again at the Paul Chapman & Sons Arena tonight on Saturday.

Their heat leaders dominated at Armadale, limiting the Monarchs to just three race wins on their own circuit, with Richie Worrall (13+1) and captain Kyle Howarth leading the scoring.

Josh Pickering reached double figures for the hosts (10) but he and Sam Masters were on the receiving end of a 5-1 in the last race as the visitors built a substantial first leg advantage.

Leicester boss Stewart Dickson said: “It was certainly a better performance than Wednesday (at Poole), that’s for sure – we were looking for a reaction to that.

“I don’t think Edinburgh raced to what they’re capable of, because they had a fantastic result last Friday (against Redcar) and I think we caught them on a bad night.

“But obviously from a Lions perspective we’ve got a lead heading into Saturday night, and now we’ve got to finish the job off.”

Edinburgh manager Alex Harkess said: “I’m very disappointed and it was a very poor performance by us.

“We are not as bad a team as we looked tonight, we can’t be or we would never have beaten Redcar last week. Even when we gated we were being out-fought round the first corner.

“Leicester were excellent but we are better than we looked tonight, and I hope we can get a better score away from home – I believe that is possible.”

CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF, SEMI-FINAL, 1st leg
EDINBURGH 36: Josh Pickering 10, Sam Masters 9+1, Kye Thomson 6+1, Paco Castagna 4+2, James Sarjeant 4, Jacob Hook 2+1, Lasse Fredriksen 1+1
LEICESTER 53: Richie Worrall 13+1, Kyle Howarth 12, Max Clegg 9+1, Nick Morris 9, Connor Mountain 8+2, Dan Thompson 2+1, Joe Thompson 0

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Photo credit: JACK CUPIDO