“It would have been disallowed” – Adrian Lam unhappy with crucial Wigan try

Leigh boss Adrian Lam believes Wigan’s first try would have been disallowed if the match official sent Bevan French’s effort to the video referee.

Wigan full-back French crossed for the visitor’s opening points, helping them towards a 34-6 victory in the Battle of the Borough on Thursday night.

However, Lam believes the Australian playmaker’s efforts should have been disallowed. 

“I thought we got the start that we wanted. But we didn’t defend the first try, I was a bit frustrated with that because it was definitely a lead outside our three defender,” Lam said in his post-match press conference.

“If they had have gone to the video referee, it would have been disallowed.

“I knew we needed to sort of keep their first try away for as long as possible to be with a chance tonight. But they awarded that without going up to the video referee.

“Where I was sitting, it was definitely a no try. 

“I don’t know why they didn’t use it (the video referee) when it’s there to be used. But that’s not the reason why we lost.

“It’s just, when you’re playing teams like Wigan, you’ve got to get those lucky moments on your side.”

Adrian Lam encouraged by performance

The Leopards opened the scoring through Tom Briscoe, crossing for his 200th career try, before the hosts found themselves 10-6 down at the break with tries from French and Jai Field.

And it was one-way traffic in the second 40, with Wigan going on to cross five more times. Field bagged a brace before leaving the field through injury, while Abbas Miski also scored twice on his first appearance of the year.

Jake Wardle and Toby King also got in on the action, but Lam remained broadly encourage by the performance, despite the scoreline.

“I said to the guys in the dressing room that that is going to help us tonight, in terms of understanding where we need to be,” said Lam.

“There’s different levels of improvement and understanding. We’ve been playing at a level that, for us to aspire to the top four, that’s the level we need to play at for 80 minutes.

“The lesson tonight was the intensity that was like it hasn’t been all season so far. There was plenty of effort and energy and some of the stuff was as good as we’ve done all season.

“There were some positives out of that, but they are heartbroken because they put a lot of energy into it.”

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