LEIGH LEOPARDS continued their hunt for a Super League play-off spot with their eighth win in nine games, following a hard-fought success over Warrington Wolves.
Warrington were reduced to twelve men in the eleventh minute after Paul Vaughan was dismissed for a high tackle on Owen Trout, a decision that incensed their head coach Sam Burgess.
“I don’t think it’s right, well I think it’s embarrassing,” said an angry Burgess.
“It becomes a theatrical game out there. Numerous players, telling players to stay down. We’re about to play on, but… We had one last week, we had one this week. They’re sending for HIA, it was convenient.
But that was refuted by Leopards coach Adrian Lam, who said: ”We don’t train for that.
“There’s nothing about our club that talks about staying down after hits. In fact, I’m the complete opposite. I’m like get up and get on with it. So, it must have been what it was worth, but there’s no comment on that.”
Burgess continued: “So it’s theatrical, isn’t it? What was the report for? What did they put in the report for later in the game? What was that all about? Did you see that one?
“Hang on, so we put some things on report but you show a red card ten minutes into a game. Really? Is it really a red card? What do you guys think? I’d say yellow, in today’s world, yellow. There are mitigating factors.
“It was such a big call, so who makes it? In the spur of the moment, honestly, it just had such an influence on the result. I can’t stress how proud of my team I am. Because they never gave up, they never stopped trying and we were below average with the ball tonight.
“We just didn’t give ourselves a chance, but you know I’ve got a team in there that will fight hard for each other, so I’m going to fight for them right now and ask a couple of questions about what we’re going to do to fix this mess, because that was a mess. It spoiled a good game of Rugby League.
“Let’s just get the people in power to get a grip of it and have some responsibility and some accountability for what’s happened on the field. I tell my players not to stay down because I don’t think it’s in the spirit of the game. I don’t think it’s a great look. As role models I don’t think it’s fantastic, but you know, the game has created it so the game has to stamp it out.”
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