On reflection the performance wasn’t actually that bad. We had 4 tries disallowed by the video referee, all barring the BMM decision seemed to be the correct call. Point is though that we carved the Leigh defence open and got the ball in each case over the white line. On another day we’d have scored each one. We must have bombed another 3 tries through poor decision making, the one that stands out of the most was Junior’s break when a simple pass outside to Evalds would have seen us in and probably under the sticks for a 6 pointer.
If we played them again next week at the AJ I would be more than confident of a 18+ point victory. That isn’t meant in a disrespectful manner towards Leigh, but on another day where we had of been far more clinical it would have been a similar outcome on Saturday.
After the game I was angry. But looking back I was probably angered by a combination of a few things;
1. A local derby that we had just been beaten in.
2. Beaten by a team in the division below.
3. Having 4 tries referred to the VR and (rightly) not given.
4. Leigh scoring a try when Drinkwaters kick takes a nasty deflection into the arms of McNally to score under the posts.
5. Tongas wonder pass to secure the victory.
6. Sa’u not giving the pass to Evalds.
Credit where credit is due to Leigh they did everything they had to and deserved the win. They rode their luck which every Championship team is going to need to do to beat Super League opposition. Will they get that same amount of luck against Huddersfield and Hull KR? I doubt it, but those teams aren’t as good as we are either.
We can afford to lose 2 games and still be OK but it just makes Friday night’s game against Hull KR far more bigger than it needed to be. If we win that we will be safe as neither Fev, London or Batley will trouble us.
I hope Leigh manage to beat one of either KR or Huddersfield and make it up. Apart from the result I enjoyed the day. Great away day for us and met plenty of decent Leigh fans in the town afterwards who were very complimentary about us etc.
