Adrian Lam slams “outrageous” John Asiata yellow card

Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam has said he was “frustrated” with some key decisions against his side in defeat to St Helens branding the sin binning of John Asiata as “outrageous.”

Lam started his interview with Sky Sports saying how proud he was of his side: “I think it was a moral victory for us in a way. I’m very proud of the efforts. Could have done much more there, get penalised out of the game and frustrated through a few decisions. But overall just really proud. We had a lot of players out of position. We had the start and front run on the centres there towards the end. So they hung in there and there we go.”

Asked, “Which decisions frustrated you?” Lam responded with: “There’s a few through the game. I don’t really want to talk about it and make that the focal point for tonight. I was more, I guess, just frustrated that when the game was in the balance, there were a few decisions to go against us later on in the tackle count.”

Adrian Lam slams John Asiata yellow card

Lam would later go on to slam the decision to sin bin John Asiata: “John’s first point of contact was above the leg and slid down. So, last year that would have been play on. I think a fair call would have been a penalty against but to sin being a player for doing that is just outrageous so it’s where we’re at at the moment you know we’ve got to support the process moving forward so things will change slightly I guess over the next couple of weeks but wait and see.”

Asiata was sin binned for using a similar tackle to those used against St Helens last year which led to major injuries and a changing of the rules by the RFL.

Asiata would return to the field before going off with a torn calf as Lam confirmed: “Yeah same with Briscoe yeah I think we were down to one sub there for the last 25 minutes so like I said I thought there was plenty of effort there from the boys tonight.

“We didn’t play the smartest and a couple of things could have gone our way, might have been a different outcome of the game.”

Lam was also full of praise for the debuting Brad Dwyer: “Yeah, he was awesome tonight and that’s what we brought into the club, you know. He’s a player that I’ve respected for a long time and I know he’ll fit in great here and hopefully it’s long term.”