Leicester Lions v Edinburgh Monarchs

LEICESTER are the first team through to the Championship Grand Final after a 53-37 home win over Edinburgh to progress by 33 points on aggregate.

The Lions were in control after Friday’s first leg and marched on to a comfortable victory on their own track despite the withdrawal of No.1 Nick Morris, who suffered a heavy landing when he looped shortly after the start of Heat 1.

But fellow heat-leaders Richie Worrall and Kyle Howarth scored 15 points apiece as both took an extra ride, and the Lions gave a strong all-round performance.

Sam Masters won his first four outings for the Monarchs before missing out on a maximum in Heat 15, and he top-scored for the visitors with 12.

Leicester boss Stewart Dickson said: “We feel good, getting into the Final was the target and we rode very well over the two nights.

“The objective was to get to the Final and we’ve managed to do that rather more convincingly than I thought we would do.

“Edinburgh had a tough night on Friday which we took advantage of, and we did a thoroughly professional job tonight, so now it’s all systems go and we’re looking forward to the Final.

“It was a sore flip for Nick but I don’t think there was any head or neck damage, which is good, it was more lower back pain, so he’s gone off home and hopefully all will be fine after some rest.”

Edinburgh boss John Campbell said: “It’s been a disappointing weekend for us, we thought we would do better. No excuses though, we were not good enough.”

CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg
LEICESTER 53: Richie Worrall 15, Kyle Howarth 15, Dan Thompson 6+2, Joe Thompson 6+2, Connor Mountain 6, Max Clegg 5+2, Nick Morris 0.
EDINBURGH 37: Sam Masters 12, Josh Pickering 9+1, Paco Castagna 5+1, Kye Thomson 4, James Sarjeant 4, Jacob Hook 2+1, Lasse Fredriksen 1.
Leicester win 106-73 on aggregate.

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Photo credit: MARK HALL