ADRIAN LAM admitted Leigh Leopards’ golden-point win over Toulouse Olympique was “pretty hard to watch”.

Leigh lost a 20-point lead but Gareth O’Brien kicked the winning field-goal in extra time for a 21-20 success.

“It was pretty hard to watch really – I just saw it all slipping away,” said coach Lam.

“It was easy to see the story of the 80 minutes. I thought the first 30 minutes was as good as anyone at any time.

“We were just so clinical, but then a soft try right before half-time gave Toulouse a little bit of hope and momentum.

”I said at half-time, make sure we keep the throttle on. Then there’s a couple of bounces of the ball and a sin bin and all of a sudden we’re hanging on for dear life. Instead of thriving, we’re surviving.

”It was frustrating for that, but we got the two points I guess. We’ve a lot to learn out of it, like some dumb penalties at really crucial times in the second half.”

Leigh have now won four and drawn one of five golden-point games under Lam in all competitions.

“I brought the team in to talk to them about that,” he said of that record.

“I’m aware of that and I mentioned that – but they (Toulouse) had all the momentum to lose.

”It’s very difficult as a coach to try and turn that on a team.

”We got a bit of luck in extra time with the charge-down that went into touch and a restart (in Leigh’s favour).

“I’m just grateful they hung in there together. We did some great rugby tonight.”

Injuries again shaped their night, with Lam revealing: “Jack Hughes was injured (with his ankle) and probably should have come off, but I couldn’t change him.

“Tesi (Niu) strained his knee… and grabbed his hamstring at the end.”

There were bright spots too, particularly the PNG trio of Lachlan Lam, Jacob Alick-Wiencke and Liam Horne.

“Lachie probably played his best running game,’ said his dad.

”For Liam to support there is a real good indication of where we’re going. Both he and Jacob are getting better after slow starts.”

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