Macdonald hat-trick for Centurions

KUMULS centre Nene Macdonald scored a hat-trick to help Betfred Championship ladder leaders Leigh Centurions to a 66-0 shutout of cellar dwellers Workington Town in the United Kingdom on Sunday.
Scoring a debut try, ex-Warrington and Wigan winger Joshn Charnley notched one of Leigh’s 11 touchdowns with Ata Hingano and Joe Wardle bagging doubles.
Kristian Inu converted all 11 tries as Leigh fell just short of their best victory against Town of 70-0 at Hilton Park in 2001.
Blake Ferguson, who marked his own Leigh bow with four tries against Chris Thorman’s bottom-of-the-table team last May, switched to centre to accommodate the club’s latest signing.
Leigh launched their first attack off the back of a high shot on Joe Mellor with quick hands enabling Caleb Aekins to send Charnley over five minutes in.
Inu booted the first of his perfect kicking display.
Edwin Ipape was held up and Macdonald knocked on as Leigh threatened the tryline again.
Macdonald’s 17th Championship try wasn’t far away, however, crashing through Alex Young’s tackle 14 minutes in.
The visitors already had a stranglehold on proceedings when Wardle grabbed try number three four minutes later.
Bulldozing breaks by Tom Amone and Ben Nakubuwai provided the openings for Hingano’s three-minute double to give Leigh a 30-0 lead 26 minutes in.
By halftime, the advantage had stretched to 36-0 with fullback Aekins adding his nam to the try list.
Within two minutes of the re-start, Wardle notched Leigh’s seventh try with Hingano suffering a game-ending injury after an assist.
Ipape skittled the home defence for Leigh’s eighth try with Aekins assisting for Macdonald’s second after 51 minutes. In between, Charnley left the field as a precaution.
Leigh had to wait 19 minutes for their 10th try with John Asiata producing a pass for the season contender to send Macdonald over for his hat-trick.
Amone rounded off the whitewash with a deserved try three minutes from fulltime.
— leighjournal