Huge twist in Grand Final tale as St Helens’ Morgan Knowles CLEARED to play against Leeds Rhinos

The RFL have tonight confirmed that Morgan Knowles will be allowed to play against Leeds in Saturday’s Grand Final after the club launched a second appeal of the ban today.

Here were the findings:

“St Helens’ Morgan Knowles is free to play in Saturday’s Betfred Super League Grand Final, following a successful second appeal against a two-match suspension.

“After Tuesday’s independent tribunal rejected his first appeal, St Helens launched a second appeal claiming that the tribunal’s conclusion was ‘unreasonable’ based on the evidence presented.

“Tonight’s tribunal accepted that while there was some twisting to apply pressure to the limb of an opposing player, this did not exceed the normal range of movement and therefore could not have posed an ‘unacceptable risk of injury’.

“The full minutes of the hearing will be available on the RFL website on Thursday morning.”

Knowles was given a two-match ban for a tackle on Chris Atkin when he twisted Atkin’s arm behind his back and was given a yellow card as consequence which helped lead to a try for Kallum Watkins.

Many expected a ban to come and it did on Monday night whilst teammate Jack Welsby escaped a ban with a Grade A charge.

Last night St Helens were unsuccessful with their appeal of the ban which saw Kristian Woolf miss the Man of Steel awards.

However, now this second appeal has seen the ban overturned which will enable Morgan Knowles to play in the decider against Leeds on Saturday night.