Craig Lingard slams Liam Watts’ red card as he explains confusion with Harry

CASTLEFORD TIGERS went down 32-4 to reigning Super League champions Wigan Warriors at The Jungle in highly-controversial circumstances.

Castleford were reduced to 12 men after half an hour which effectively ended the game as a contest, with that card being the focal point for Craig Lingard in his post-match press conference.

“I just need to choose my words carefully here. There is big things about head contact and making the sport safer and as a head coach – and we have had coaches meetings about this – what constitutes a red card and mitigating circumstances, as coaches at every club in pre-season we have been teaching players new habits in dipping into contact and getting into contact under the ball,” Lingard said.

“I just don’t know what we expect Liam Watts to do there. In my opinion the ball carrier has come into contact whether he has deliberately lowered his height or slipped has lowered. It’s not a swinging arm, you can understand if someone comes flying out the line.

“But I can’t wear it, how can I coach my players for that not to happen again. I can’t coach anybody not to do that. The mitigating circumstances there for me were the players going to the ground. But what’s the difference between that and the Luke Hooley one? Or the contact between that one and the Harry Smith tackle?”

Lingard actually explained why the yellow card handed to Smith was a red card on video recommendation before on-field referee Tom Grant changed it to yellow.

“On the recommendation of the off-field referee, it was a red card and the referee deemed it to be a yellow card. I might be wrong but from the touchline, the video referee recommended a red card, so why wasn’t it?

“I’m hoping we won’t need to appeal it and there are no charges to answer, it depends how they interpret it. If there are no charges to admit then I will admit I’m wrong.”

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