LEIGH LEOPARDS head coach Adrian Lam has no argument with the charges handed to Edwin Ipape, but feels that the new points scoring system goes against the PNG international for the remainder of the 2025 campaign.
Ipape received two charges from the Disciplinary Match Review Panel from his side’s 18-14 win over Warrington Wolves last weekend.
Not only was the hooker charged with Grade A Dangerous Contact and thus one penalty point, Ipape was also handed a Grade C Dangerous Contact charge.
That indiscretion brought with it five penalty points, giving the 26-year-old a total of 7.5 penalty points.
As such, Ipape has been banned for one match.
However, when an offence adds points to a player’s record that leads to the player receiving a sanction – either a fine or a suspension – the number of points added to their record for that offence will be reduced by 50%.
This is to recognise that the player has previously served a sanction however there remains a percentage of points on the player’s record to acknowledge that they have committed previous misconduct.
That means that Ipape, instead of starting from zero again at the end of his ban, will instead have four penalty points – and is therefore just two penalty points off receiving another suspension.
For Lam, he is not keen on Ipape being in a position where he is much closer to another suspension after just returning from one.
“It’s probably not a bad week for Edwin to miss. I’m not happy with the two charges he’s got,” Lam said.
“Fair enough on the charges, I’m not happy in the sense that Edwin could have prevented them with smarter decisions at the time.
“But the new system and how it works has caught up to him very quickly.
“The way his points fall back after this and that he is still on the cusp of being suspended for the rest of the season is hard to accept.”
Lam was asked who will replace Ipape at nine for the Leopards against Salford Red Devils on Saturday.
He said: “We will look at Brad Dwyer, Matty Davis and Ben McNamara for that starting nine shirt and the bench nine shirt.”
