Leeds Rhinos star James Donaldson avoided a red card against Hull KR despite the fact everyone on Sky Sports and 90% of the crowd felt it was a red card.
Donaldson caught a descending Oliver Gildart high as James Bentley began a tackle late in the first half. As we have seen in Round One, head contact is a hot topic at the moment as Super League targets a 30% decrease in concussions and officials are really targeting this.
This saw a huge amount of cards last week as well as nine initial bans and three more after tribunal and a total of 16 players charged by the Match Review Panel.
The incident with Liam Watts who was red carded for Castleford Tigers and banned for four games would suggest a player low to the ground doesn’t mitigate an incident enough to avoid a red but on this occasion official Jack Smith clearly communicated that the dropping Gildart ensured that Donaldson was only yellow carded and not sent off completely.
Leeds were made to pay extra however conceding a penalty with the two points from Jez Litten.
They would concede another two points at 14-12 to make it 16-12 when Sam Lisone was sin binned. He also escaped a red card due to the fact he was determined to have also been saved by the mitigating factor of a low runner.
Hull KR complete major signing ahead of Leeds Rhinos clash
New Zealand’s Jared Warea-Hargreaves – New Zealand Kiwis v Ireland, Round 3 of the Rugby League World Cup England 2021 (played in 2022) at Headingley Stadium, England on Friday 28 October 2022.
© Mandatory credit: Alex Whitehead / www.photosport.nz
Hull KR gave the club a huge boost before the game with Leeds Rhinos with the announcement that NRL star Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is headed to the club in 2025.
Jared highlighted his chat with current Hull KR Development Coach, Shaun Kenny-Dowall as key to the move: ‘My best mate is Shaun Kenny-Dowall, I played nearly ten seasons with Skids. When he went over to Hull, we stayed in contact and he’s spoken highly of Hull KR and the people in the club.
‘It’s being a part of what I wanted to do. Now that this opportunity is here, it’s very exciting. Once we started talking about it happening, it moved quickly.
‘We started talking about it in November last year, we met up in Paris for the Rugby Union World Cup Final and he asked what I was up to and said the opportunity was there (at Hull KR) and here we are now. I rang Willie and I rang Skids and said let’s make it happen.’
Waerea-Hargreaves is embracing the new challenge with a familiar face in Shaun Kenny-Dowall on the club’s coaching staff: ‘It’s going to be different. We have that respect for what we’ve done in the game. We’ve known each other long enough to have that respect.
‘I can’t wait. To be on the other side of the world in the North of England and be able to go to a place like Hull and do some special things with Hull KR is exciting.’
