St Helens coach berates key decision in Leigh Leopards defeat as frustrations over lack of communication aired

Interim St Helens boss Eamon O’Carroll was left fuming after a controversial try was awarded in Leigh Leopards’ favour last night.

Saints, who would end up losing 48-10 to the top four hopefuls, were well in the game early on, but it was fatigue and inexperience that ultimately cost them, but it’s easy to understand how that can happen with 17 players unavailable through injury.

At the time the try was awarded, Saints were only 12-10 down, and were able to stick in the grind with a Leigh side that needed an upturn in performance after defeat to Huddersfield last week.

Umyla Hanley crossed for his first try, increasing the lead to 18-10, but on the replay it was clear that Leopards half-back Adam Cook had obstructed Saints youngster Matty Evans in the build-up.

Evans went down very softly, but there was clear contact between the two and had Evans not gone to ground, he would have taken up the space that Hanley sailed through.

O’Carroll, who took charge of his penultimate game as Saints’ interim boss, was convinced that the try would be ruled out.

He told the press: “Big time. I think we’ve had a couple of them, and I don’t want to sound like a whinger, and I probably am whinging.

“It’s very easy when a club’s in a situation like ours for people to go against them and probably not give them the rub of the green when they need to.

“I was looking at the replay and sending messages up to our analyst, and he’s like, ‘It’s a dead set no try’ from the replay.

“I might be wrong, but I don’t even think they looked at it.”

O’Carroll’s impending exit means he can perhaps speak more freely than if he was to remain in the sport, with the coach believing that Saints’ poor form is contributing to the way that officials see 50/50 calls.

“We’ve had a couple over the last few weeks where it’s just easy not to give us [calls] because of the situation that we’re in. I’ve had zero communication with the officials because they probably view it as ‘oh, it’s an interim’.

“The game needs to be better than that. I can say more, and I probably will next week because I’m leaving the game. I’ll say it because I want our game to be good, ultimately, and it’s not good enough.”

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