LEIGH East went down to a heart-breaking home defeat as Heworth held them off to collect a 22-14 success.

Surprisingly, the first half was scoreless, although on another day East could have been three scores clear with their dominance of proceedings.

Ellis Noon had two tries disallowed on the left while Aaron Noon was twice caught on the right flank after the hosts had created numbers, while a couple of other chances went begging and Heworth missed an opportunity of their own on the stroke of half-time.

A couple of minutes into the new half, a high tackle on the outstanding Adam Wilkes brought a penalty and Adam Holland converted for a 2-0 advantage. This only lasted a minute as East fluffed the kick-off and Heworth got over through impressive centre Gareth Watson.

Ben Dyson-Dent converted and touched down himself after 53 minutes after kicking through to the posts and collecting. His second goal made it 12-2 before Will Ludlow supported Ellis Noon to cross wide out.

Just as it looked like East were going to spring into action, Andrew Gregson was sin-binned for a late challenge. Heworth scored within a minute through Watson with Dyson Dent adding his third goal.

East responded with a good finish from Ellis Noon from Holland’s long pass before an error handed the visitors the ball. Two passes from the scrum Watson then showed super-human strength to escape three tacklers to plough over for his hat-trick and Heworth led 22-10.

Another smart finish came from Noon after four players tried to bounce him into touch but time ran out on any further revival and Heworth celebrated.