{"id":647710,"date":"2026-06-19T19:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/647710\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T19:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:50:19","slug":"leigh-leopards-boss-calls-for-clarity-on-disciplinary-rules-after-veterans-three-match-suspension-and-stars-outrageous-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/647710\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards boss calls for clarity on disciplinary rules after veteran’s three-match suspension and star’s “outrageous” charge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam has called on the Match Review Panel to rethink the charge that punishes players for making contact with a potentially injured player.<\/p>\n

Lam\u2019s Leigh copped a three-match ban over the weekend, with Jack Hughes set to miss the next few weeks for making contact with Bradford\u2019s Chris Atkin.<\/p>\n

The Leopards boss has slammed the ruling this week, labelling it a \u201cnightmare.\u201d It\u2019s not the first time this season that the charge has been handed out, with Wigan\u2019s Harry Smith, Leeds\u2019 Lachie Miller and Castleford\u2019s Semi Valemei all copping the same charge for incidents earlier in the year.<\/p>\n

Valemei\u2019s charge was arguably the most controversial of the three, with the Tigers winger still charged despite putting St Helens\u2019 Noah Stephens in the recovery position after he appeared to be knocked out cold.<\/p>\n

Obviously, rugby league players aren\u2019t medical professionals, and the rule is there to prevent any further damage being done to the players. That being said Lam still thinks more needs to be done to provide clarity on the rules and what players can and can\u2019t do.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the press this week, he said: \u201cThat incident occurred just before half-time and it was [Chris] Atkin running the ball, but he slipped over and ran into Charnley\u2019s knees and fell to the ground and Jack came over.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Atkin] was holding onto the ball and Jack wanted a quick turnover, so he\u2019s just shoving to get the ball off him. The issue was that the law is that you can\u2019t put your hand or finger on any player that could potentially be injured so that was the dilemma \u2013 Was he injured? Is he playing around? Is he delaying time? All that sort of stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to get into that one because that\u2019s just a nightmare. We understand the ruling and we\u2019re very supportive of protecting the injured player, but I think that needs to be looked at at some stage of this season towards the end and put some definite rulings around how that can be looked at differently because it\u2019s just pretty heavy at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a few clubs have been caught out on that so we\u2019ve had a separate meeting this week just to show the clip and just say, listen, in these situations you\u2019ve got to be very careful regardless of where your emotions are at or whether you think the player\u2019s stalling for time or whether he\u2019s genuinely injured. We have to support the law in this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sir Kevin Sinfield, play-off race heats up and who can stop Wigan Warriors? \u2013 Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show.<\/a><\/p>\n

Bradford Bulls boss shows sympathy for Leigh Leopards man after three-match ban<\/p>\n

Those comments were backed up by Bradford Bulls boss Kurt Haggerty, who were Leigh\u2019s opponents on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

When asked about Hughes\u2019 ban, the boss said in his weekly press conference: \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult, because in this game and in this sport, the players that play each other know each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo in those moments, you don\u2019t mind helping your mates up off the floor, or somebody you\u2019ve played with or played against for a very long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just such a grey area. It\u2019s something we\u2019ve not addressed as a group. If there\u2019s somebody on the floor, just keep your hands to yourself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is, if it\u2019s so severe where you think you can help, you help them out, but otherwise, just don\u2019t touch them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if it was an unfair and harsh ruling, he replied: \u201cYeah, and unfortunately, where the game is at at the moment, it\u2019s such a grey area. It\u2019s not a rule that anybody likes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adrian Lam blasts Match Review Panel after star\u2019s \u201coutrageous\u201d charge<\/p>\n

Lam had more to say about the disciplinary process this week, after he was keen to address the successful appeal of Edwin Ipape\u2019s Grade B charge.<\/p>\n

Ipape was hit with the charge and was awarded three penalty points and a fine, however that wasn\u2019t enough to land him a ban.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Leigh still felt the need to appeal the grading, with Lam feeling that the charge didn\u2019t align with many other incidents that have occurred this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fought the Edwin Ipape charge, and we did a really good job on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt that that was unfair and completely out of order\u2026 The whole club was very disappointed with just the time we had to put into that to get him off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt that it was a charge that skipped the Grade A and straight into a Grade B for a three-point charge and \u00a3600 [fine], which we still at this point are frustrated that we even got into a situation to challenge that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess everyone\u2019s learning from things like this all the time, but it was not going to get him suspended, but that wasn\u2019t the point. We thought in principle that it was something that if you\u2019ve watched the clip yourself, you\u2019ll understand my comments here, but there\u2019s not much else you can do in the game of rugby league than what Edwin\u2019s done when he made that tackle.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be charged for that was just outrageous and unfair, and we challenged it and rightfully so\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam has called on the Match Review Panel to rethink the charge that punishes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-647710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}