Castleford Tigers boss Craig Lingard unhappy with red card decision against Wigan Warriors: 'I just don't know what we expect Liam Watts to do there'

The Tigers had to play around 50 minutes with 12 men after prop Watts was red carded for what was deemed a shoulder charge to the head of Wigan’s Tyler Dupree.

The Warriors took full advantage of their extra man to go from 4-2 down at the time of the Watts indient to go on to win 32-4 and Lingard was left frustrated along with home fans in the 10,000 plus crowd.

The inconsistency of referee Tom Grant left the head coach most confused after Wigan players were not red carded after being penalised for previous offences in the game.

"What's the difference between that one and the Luke Hooley one?" said Lingard referring to Watts’ offence after seeing Kaide Ellis escape a card for an earlier high tackle.

"What's the difference between the contact on the Wigan player and Harry Smith picking somebody up and dropping him on his head?

"I don't want Harry Smith to get sent off, but it has a massive impact on the game.

"I'm led to believe from the sideline that the recommendation from the video referee was that Harry Smith's was a red card and that on the recommendation of an on-field official it got reduced to a yellow card. Why?"

Lingard added: "I know there's a big thing about head contacts in rugby league and we're trying to make the sport safer, which we need to do.

"But we've had head coaches' meetings about what constitutes a red card and mitigating circumstances.

"We've been trying to teach players new habits. I just don't know what we expect Liam Watts to do there. In my opinion, the ball carrier has come into contact and whether he's deliberately lowered his height or slipped, his height has lowered. It's not a swinging arm.

"If someone flies out of the line and whacks somebody around the head deliberately or carelessly, you can wear that but I just can't wear this one.

"As a coach, how can I coach my players for that to not happen again? I can't coach anybody to do that.

"The mitigating circumstances there for me were the player was going down towards the ground."