Adrian Lam seemingly furious with controversial decision

With a semi-final against Wigan Warriors or a trip to France waiting the winner of Hull KR and Leigh Leopards as they collided tonight, the intensity was as high as you are going to see with thunderous tackles early on as well as a few uncharacteristic errors in what was a do or die game.

This makes key decisions so crucial and one decision has highlighted the controversy over one particular rule in Super League: the video referee approach.

This came at the end of a frenetic first half.

This was always going to be a great game as a rematch of the first Challenge Cup Final without Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves and St Helens since 1986.

Hull KR had secured home advantage in the game last week but, despite trying to speed the game up, had to battle through a number of errors.

They conceded the opening points after a strange penalty against Matt Parcell. He was in front of the play the ball but got involved in the play and was subsequently offside.

He was penalised and Ben Reynolds nailed the penalty to give the Leopards the advantage early on.

They had a few chances to build pressure especially after a huge hit by Lachlan Lam which saw the ball knocked free but on the next set the Leopards squandered the opportunity with James Batchelor mopping up a kick.

Hull KR slowly but surely battled back into the game ironically by speeding the game up around the ruck and on the back of inroads created by dummy half runs, Elliot Minchella won a penalty due to a high tackle from Joe Wardle.

This time Brad Schneider nailed a penalty to make it 2-2. He looked destined to score the opener after some great interplay between Jack Walker and Matt Parcell – two Grand Final winners in 2017 with Leeds Rhinos – saw them carve open the Leopards with a series of offloads.

But the last pass to Schneider was deemed forward denting an attacking opportunity that most days would be described as a certain try but Ed Chamberlain came across to tackle him after the whistle was blown.

However, Hull KR would eventually get the opening try with a nice set play putting James Batchelor through a gap before an offload to Jack Walker to score.

Then another former Leeds star pounced on a brilliant one on one strip by Matt Parcell. On the next play Ryan Hall powered over despite the efforts of Joe Mellor.

This was sent up as a try but footage showed that there was a good chance that Mellor had a hand under the ball but with insufficient evidence to overturn the decision the try was denied by video referee Chris Kendall.

Then at halftime, the camera came on Adrian Lam and he did not seem happy at all.