“It was…” – Leigh Leopards boss speaks out on controversial call against Leeds

Leigh Leopards controversially had a man sin binned against Leeds Rhinos as they lost their grip on the game after leading 16-0.

Gareth O’Brien was sin binned for a flop after a Leeds break which was deemed a professional foul and he was sin binned.

After the game, Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam spoke on Leopards TV and had a number of questions about the referee decisions.

Lam also commented on the sin binning of Gareth O’Brien but did say Leeds should have had up to four yellow cards: “It was mayhem out there for about 15 to 20 minutes. It was a case of six again, penalty, penalty, try. I need to watch it back to get it clear in my head.

“I’m a little bit frustrated. I thought we deserved something out of that game. It was a crucial moment. It didn’t need to be done and it was a brain explosion.”

Leigh Leopards boss addresses controversial call

There were some positives for the Leigh Leopards within the game as Head Coach Adrian Lam himself would note as he spoke to Sky Sports.

He said: “I thought the first half was as good as it gets in rugby league and I was really proud of him for that, especially without John there.

“And we can build on that moving forward and just stay positive through this process and just keep working hard.”

Another positive was the performance of young Umyla Hanley who scored his first try for Leigh after joining the club from Wigan Warriors ahead of the 2023 Super League season.

It was his first showing since June for the Leigh Leopards and he certainly impressed his Head Coach Adrian Lam who said of his performance:

“Yeah, he’s been awesome through our pre-season and certainly deserves a start so I’m just proud of him getting that first try and also having that performance that he did.”

Leigh though are still without a win this season. They will be hoping to get a win next week ahead of beginning of their defence of the Betfred Challenge Cup trophy which begins the weekend of the 22nd-24th of March.