Championship leaders and reigning champions Leigh Centurions were made to work hard at Whitehaven for their latest 36-12 victory.

Home coach James Coyle had asked his side not to focus on the scoreboard but on their own performance.

But at half-time it was impossible to ignore as Whitehaven were full value for 12-12.

The full-time training of Leigh told in the final quarter of the game during which time they scored three tries.

“I was really pleased with how the players responded after going behind so early on,” said Coyle.

“Leigh started as if they were going to blow us away but I think we realised it was going to be a long 80 minutes if we continued like that.

“They knuckled down really well and in the end I think the final score rather flattered Leigh.

“There were some very big performances out there for us but I was particularly pleased with the work of our second row pair Ugo Perez and Steven Fox,” he added.

“We did create opportunities and I didn’t think Leigh troubled us up to half-time after those initial first 15 minutes.

“Perhaps if we had made the best use of the chance we created early in the second-half it might have been a different story.

“Let’s not forget that they are full-time and we had a number of players missing because they were injured or carrying knocks.

“We have another tough home game on Saturday against Halifax and I rather hope that we will have a number of those players back for then.”

Christophe Jouffret, father of full-back Louis and chief executive of Catalan Dragons, was at the game checking on the progress of his son and second-row forward Ugo Perez.

Whitehaven are hoping that Jouffret senior may be able to help them with further recruits from across the channel.