There’s been a whirlwind of confusion at Headingley the evening as Ireland and Jamaica do battle.
Ireland have not been affected by this scoring three early tries to take command of a must win game for the Irish if they are to fulfil their ambitions of making the quarter-finals at the expense of Lebanon who play against New Zealand later today.
However, it was the Ireland spine which was at the heart of this confusion which stemmed from the team sheet.
Ireland’s team sheet depicted Canterbury Bulldogs hooker Josh Cook as starting at nine in a brilliant spine alongside Halifax’s Joe Keyes, three-time NRL winner Luke Keary and Leeds Rhinos star Richie Myler.
However, Cook didn’t start with York’s Brendan O’Hagan instead starting at hooker and even scooting over for Ireland’s third try.
This change to the team sheet was set to be punished with the loss of an interchange leaving Ireland with just seven interchanges to make throughout the 80 minutes opposed to the usual eight.
This is the standard punishment for such offences including in Super League when teams include players not named in their original 21-man squads for the game.
However, it was later revealed that Ireland still had a full compliment of substitutions with this situation all coming from a system error which absolved Ireland of any wrong doing according to BBC.
Ironically, as this was cleared up, O’Hagan left the field after claiming the try and Cook came on.
Leigh Leopards
Leigh Leopards and their problem position
