Leigh Leopards coach slams ‘unacceptable’ controversial Ricky Leutele sin-bin in St Helens win

Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam has slammed the decision to sin-bin Ricky Leutele during their 18-12 victory against St Helens, deeming the yellow card shown ‘unacceptable’ and stating a decision like that ‘is going to cost someone a Grand Final’.

The Leopards needed to win Friday night’s Round 27 clash to book a spot in the play-offs, with the likelihood of missing out on the top six altogether had they been beaten.

When centre Leutele – who scored their second try of the evening – was sin-binned 53 minutes into the game, Leigh were cruising at 12-0 up and in the ascendancy.

His yellow card came – following a video referee review – for a big hit on Saints‘ Jack Welsby, deemed to have made contact with the full-back’s head, much to the surprise of virtually everyone inside the Leopards’ Den and those watching at home.

By the time Leutele‘s 10 minutes in the bin came to an end, they found themselves level at 12-12 following two quickfire tries from the visitors.

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Leigh Leopards coach slams ‘unacceptable’ controversial Ricky Leutele sin-bin in St Helens win

The hosts eventually recovered to edge out a crucial 18-12 win thanks to Josh Charnley’s try, setting up a trip to Salford Red Devils next Friday night (September 27) in the eliminator stage of the play-offs.

But Leigh’s Papua New Guinean chief Lam insisted the issue of Leutele’s yellow not even warranting a penalty is something which ‘needs to be addressed immediately’.

Post-match, he said: “I was really frustrated with the sin-bin. Whoever’s up in that box making that decision isn’t on the same page as everyone else.

“I’ve looked at that 100 times and there’s no way, in the world, should a player be sin-binned for a tackle lower than shoulder height.

“It’s unacceptable, it’s going to cost someone a Grand Final at some point. Two tries were scored tonight while that player was off.

“I don’t know what we need to do, but that can’t happen again.

“It shouldn’t have even been a penalty, I think that explains everything else. Everyone on the field knew that, every single person on the field.

“It needs to be addressed immediately. We want to keep players on the field, and not look for things to disadvantage a team.

“There was no head contact, there was no flexion of the head, what was there?!”

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