Rohan Smith refused to be drawn on the decision to send James McDonnell off during Leeds Rhinos' dramatic defeat to St Helens. The back-rower was sent off three minutes before the end of regular time for an alleged punch on Saints halfback Jonny Lomax.
Footage shown on Sky was inconclusive, though Lomax did require treatment to a cut in the aftermath of a coming together between the two players. Lomax had appeared to say something to Sam Walters after he had thrown an offload into touch when Leeds were attacking the Saints line, which prompted McDonnell's intervention.
The game was tied 12 apiece at the time and Saints would ultimately win the match in the final minute of Golden Point when Louis Dodd kicked a drop goal. When asked about the incident, Smith refrained from giving a definitive judgement.
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"I haven't watched it," he said. "I turned away, focusing on the next thing after the error. One of the St Helens players was probably giving it a bit, came in and there was a bit of banter going on among a few of them during the game. But obviously the video ref had a chance to review it, so you'd hope that he got it right."
Leeds had two tries ruled out during the contest and while Smith felt both were correct calls, he felt Sam Walters' chalked-off try could have stood given the on-field decision of a try.
"I think the Sam Walters one probably looks like there's a bit of grass between the ball and the line, but if it goes up as a try I don't probably think there's enough to overturn it, but I felt that decision was right. I'm pretty sure Paasi touched the ball when Justin juggled it. I think both of those big moments appeared to have been correctly dealt with."
Unfortunately, the big talking point will be the triple injury blow sustained by the Rhinos, with Harry Newman, Morgan Gannon and Aidan Sezer all being withdrawn during the match. Newman and Gannon were both helped from the field having suffered hamstring and ankle injuries respectively.
When quizzed on the trio, Smith said: “They will be significant injuries. You know when players get replaced in the manner that they did, you know they’re not returning to the game.
“They’ll get reviewed over the weekend and we’ll find out the outcomes of those, but let’s not take away from the blokes that were out there and did what they did.”
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