Former official suggests St Helens star should have been sent off

As Huddersfield Giants and St Helens met on Sunday there was plenty of controversy as the Giants looked for a vital win as they battle Leeds Rhinos, Warrington Wolves, Hull FC, Hull KR and Salford Red Devils for a spot in the top six.

The Giants found themselves 12-0 after 10 minutes and then they were down to 12 men when Matty English was sin binned.

This was for a cannon ball tackle and sparked a scuffle.

When he returned from the sin bin, the Giants were losing Joe Greenwood to a red card for leading with an elbow in an incident that Ian Watson felt was started by St Helens.

Ian Watson said on BBC Radio Leeds:

“The Joe Greenwood one, we played St Helens and had a man sent off at Magic weekend when we had a shoulder from Walmsley directly in the head of Greenwood in that game.

“We’ve had one today from, I don’t know if it’s the young kid, who’s gone straight through and shoulders directly in the face of Joe Greenwood. Joe Greenwood’s then pushed out and I think he has caught him with the elbow from the video thing, he’s kind of pushed out, but it’s not a malicious one.

“So he’s been sent off on the back of that after when we should have really had a penalty and then you look in that situation I’ve just seen it back on video there, for me I’d like the match review to have a little look at what Morgan Knowles is doing with his head after going down to the floor as well.

“For me you’ve got Joe Greenwood who has been directly hit in the face, we had Joe Greenwood directly hit in the face at Magic never got any penalties got concussed and got took off against that line magic. This game here he’s been sent off because he’s been lashed out and then you talk about players feeling protected, well that’s not protecting players when they’re getting whacked straight in the face and they’re the ones who are getting kind of concussed on the back of it.”

Speaking of the suggestion that things were started by the Saints, speaking on social media, Ian Smith suggested that had there been a video referee it could have been a red card for the Saints due to potential contact with the head:

“Not easy to see where initial contact was from. Looks like there is some contact with the head by the defender but not clear. Looks an interesting one for sure.”

He also called for video referees at every game:

“A Video Referee at every game would make it easier for ref.”