Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam was left ‘very frustrated’ following his side’s 20-18 loss to St Helens with ill-discipline lamented as a key reason for the defeat.
An early Josh Charnley try put Leigh in front and whilst they opened up an 18-8 lead at one point in the first half, they were reeled back in to 18-18 by the 48th minute with a Jackson Hastings penalty the only score after that point.
In the eyes of Adrian Lam, the Leopards ‘chased the whole second half’ with the head coach speaking post-match on Sky Sports to assess a difficult night at the BrewDog Stadium.
Asked for his thoughts, Lam said: “Obviously very frustrated. We had a lead in that first half there and just squandered that and then just chased the whole second half.
“We made a lot of mistakes, a lot of ill-discipline, and made it really difficult for ourselves.”
Leigh Leopards ‘not connected’ yet as Lam calls for patience
One gripe of Lam’s was the ruck speed and just how different it was from in round one, with the stark change something that he felt the Leopards didn’t adjust to.
Explaining where Leigh lost the game, he said: “The first half wasn’t perfect either. It just seemed the quickest it’s been for a long time in the game, and that’s just from the change of ruck speeds and all that sort of stuff going on.
“It’s a bit different this week than last week, and we didn’t adapt to that really well. We did lead, but I think there was a couple of soft tries there as well and just complicated that leading into the second half.”
Pushed further on ruck speed, he added: “I don’t have much to say about that really. It’s different every week at the moment, but we’ve got to get used to that.”
With a win and a loss in their opening two, Leigh head to face Wigan with Lam keen for the Leopards to put in a better showing, however, he cast a general assessment across the first two games.
“It’s only game two,” he said, adding: “There’s a lot of new faces out there and you can see that we’re not connected properly yet as a group and there was just a lot of guessing in big moments and I didn’t quite understand the DNA of what we are, but that’s all going to take time.
“It’ll take 10 or 12 weeks to get that right, especially between the halves and I can’t get frustrated too much about that because it’s going to take a while to get that right.
“I’ll be patient through that. I know when it does come, it’ll come thick and fast and things will change, but I’ve got to get through this period in good hands.”
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