Lam left to reflect on what could’ve been for Leigh after agonising Challenge Cup exit at Hull KR

Leigh Centurions head coach Adrian Lam says he’s disappointed with the manner of his side’s 24-18 round six Challenge Cup defeat away at Hull Kingston Rovers despite a solid performance for much of the contest against a side from the division above.

In both halves at Sewell Group Craven Park, the Leythers enjoyed a spell of pressure but put only two points on the board, and were punished by their Super League hosts for doing so.

Trailing 24-6 with three minutes left on the clock, Jacob Jones and Joe Mellor both scored tries within 60 seconds of each other with Krisnan Inu converting twice, but those points came too late in the day to achieve a memorable comeback.

Instead, Lam’s side are now left to focus on their Championship promotion quest – and the 1895 Cup – following a narrow Challenge Cup exit in East Hull with the Centurions’ head coach admitting those missed chances cost the Leythers dearly post-match.

He said: “I thought that the first 25 minutes was quality from us, I was proud of that and I was confident that we’d kick on, but the next 15/16 minutes was rubbish.

“We had plenty of opportunities to come away with some points [during that first half spell of pressure] but made errors and let them off the hook. If we’d executed bits better, then we could’ve gone in at half time in front.

“A couple of tries that we conceded were soft, we’ve a fair bit of work to do. We won the second half but there was still a lot of errors and it wasn’t clinical, so the overall feeling is frustration.”

KR’s three first-half tries all came in a ten-minute spell after Leigh’s early dominance of the ball, with the third just before the break seeing Matt Parcell barge his way over the line despite bodies being around him.

And despite there undoubtedly being positives to take for Leigh, Lam was left hugely disappointed that Parcell was able to get on the scoresheet in that position, adding: “That’s the worst kind of try to concede in rugby league.

“There were four players around him and absolutely no reason he should’ve scored. We didn’t deserve the win in the end, good for 40 minutes but poor for the other 40 and that’s what I’m more concerned about.

“There are valuable lessons [from today] that we can learn as a team and as a group, and I hope it stands us in good stead. It’ll make us a better team if we do learn those lessons.”

Leigh next return to action on Friday, April 1, in a Championship home game against Dewsbury Rams. Kicking off at 8:00PM, Prost International reporter Ben Olawumi will cover the game live from the Leigh Sports Village.

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