Ian Watson has his say on match abandonment

Last night Wigan Warriors moved top of the league but that was overshadowed by Leigh Leopards vs Huddersfield Giants being abandoned.

Ian Watson has had his say:

“No, nothing. I’ve seen lights go off before but then they’ve kind of regenerated and come back on but nothing quite to the level of that to be fair.

“It’s just an electrical fault, it’s tripped out. It can happen and it’s happened at a terrible point as well when the game is in the balance at 16-12.

“We’d started getting momentum back and then they did as well and it was turning out probably going to be into a decent game as well I thought, but yeah, it’s happened and we can’t control that.”

He was asked if he expected the match to restart:

“Yeah, the officials and obviously the electricians all went on and just said, can you give us 10 minutes and let’s have a little look at it because we have to leave them off for 10 minutes now and then try and reboot it.

“Then if they had come back on, all good, but I think when they tried and it tripped again on the back and then they’ve just said that they don’t think they’ll be able to get it.

“Apparently last time something like this has happened it’s been like 90 odd minutes or something like that because it’s just kept tripping. So it’s unfortunate I’d say that it’s happened during our game.

“Well that’s what we’ve just been discussing in there so there’s a few suggestions thrown around so they’re going to go to the RFL and the RFL are going to have a meeting tomorrow morning to when to play the game again really.

“I think the game is massively important for both teams. Obviously both teams want to win. Leigh are kind of on that cusp of 28 points. We’re on that where if we get four wins we can get 28 points as well.

“It’s a big call now for the RFL so which way they go, whether they start the game at that point there or whether they restart, we obviously petitioned for it to be restarted but I don’t know if I’m talking sense there or not.

“I think there will be a few things that are thrown up now but it’s going to add to the workload obviously of both clubs because you’re going to end up having a short turnaround at some point, again even shorter than probably what we’ve had in the last few weeks.”

He was asked if starting in the 48th minute was an option:

“I’ve not known it as well but it was just kind of one of the things that was just kind of thrown around in there before and like I say the RFL have got the power to make the decision on the back end of that.

“So whether they go with that, whether they restart the full game I can’t guess which way but yeah let’s see what the RFL do they’ve got to do their job now. It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just something that’s happened and it’s been out of everybody’s control, so let’s just see what the RFL come up with now. ”

In terms of replaying the fixture, he said:

“I don’t think so. I don’t know. They’re the things that the RFL are going to look at now of whether it might be played pretty quickly or whether it might be after the next game, to be fair.

“Both clubs are adamant that they want to play. Both understand that it’s just out of their control and it’s one of them things. You can say it’s at Leigh and it’s their game, but you can’t control stuff like that mate, it just is what it is. “