Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam has admitted that whilst he is not one to whinge, he will try and get to the bottom of a number of offside calls against his side in their win over Warrington Wolves.
Lam would also label the decision to send Josh Charnley to the sin bin for a high shot on Toby King as ‘outrageous’ and an incident that he felt was unnecessary.
Leigh would come through that adversity, as well as the adversity of Gaz O’Brien pulling out on the morning before losing Frankie Halton (pec) and Edwin Ipape (HIA), to win 28-10 against Warrington.
Leading 16-6 approaching the 50th minute, Charnley was sent to the sin bin for an incident that was initially not penalised on the field by Marcus Griffiths and was only acted upon after the tackled King stay down on the floor.
Asked about that sin bin in his post-match presser, Lam sad: “I have to look at it closely again but I just (thought) it was outrageous.
“That spoils the game. I don’t think a player needs to leave the field on one of those actions.”
He also took issue with a number of decisions, predominantly in the first half where he felt his side saw their momentum stopped as a result of calls that he believed were wrong.
Lam explained: “I also thought that we had momentum in the first half and then penalties for offside when we clearly weren’t, we were never offside.
“It just broke the momentum of the game, just allow the game to flow. There were a few moments there it was stopped and it was frustrating for that side of things, especially in the first half when we had momentum.”
On whether he could or would have an avenue to speak with the officials and understand those decisions, Lam said: “It has to be done by Monday lunchtime, to contact the head of the referees, but I’m not one of those types really but it does frustrate me. An offside penalty when no one is front, not even a foot in front, does frustrate me so I’ll get to the bottom of that.”
Leigh Leopards injury update
The Leigh Leopards boss also offered more of an injury update after having told Sky Sports that he feared Frankie Halton was out for the season with a suspected torn pec.
He confirmed: “We had Gaz O’Brien pull out this morning before the game. Robbie Mulhern was a 50/50 that we made a decision not to play this week.”
Davy Armstrong was also seen limping late in the game and had his hamstring heavily strapped, though Lam explained that it was just ‘corked’ before admitting that the club will need to have a check on the full-back before next week’s game against Wigan Warriors.
They’ll certainly be without Halton and Ipape but there could be bodies coming back.
“Andy Badrock and Nathan Wilde are both back from injury last night (on loan at Widnes), which is good,” Lam revealed.
“Back next week will be Jacob Alick-Wiencke and probably Robbie Mulhern, I think Gaz O’Brien will be back next week and AJ Towse is isn’t too far away, maybe one or two weeks.”
