Warrington Wolves defeated Hull FC to pick up their first win of the season but it was in hugely controversial circumstances.
After the game Hull FC Head Coach Tony Smith spoke to Sky Sports and was unsurprisingly quick to point to a big decision that changed the game.
Asked about the game, Smith said: “They had to dig in again. Two weeks running. Sometimes you run out of steam, which we did. You know, we obviously ran out of steam in that last 20. But proud of their efforts. Thought we were right in that game until some big decisions were made.”
This decision was of course the call to send of Fa’amanu Brown just before halftime due to accidental head contact.
In this Smith said: “There’s some really strange things happening. It’s hard for the players to understand and cope with at the moment as well. We’re playing on pretty wet pitches and it’s hard for them to get their footing right, their timing right and we’re making some pretty big decisions that are having effects on outcomes of games, no doubt.”
Hull FC boss raises questions
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This came as Smith raised questioned about the clamp down on Head Contact: “We obviously, we know these rules are being brought in for player welfare, what do we do? We include everybody and we make sure that we’re rational about how we implement it or we give people time to train to change habits that you know in styles that they’ve been using for 20 years and then we’re asking them to to do some other stuff it’s it’s a big call on them and you know we’ve been doing our best to do it over pre-season.”
He also pointed out how suspensions can make it harder on times weeks ahead of time: “It’s really hard for them to get timing and to get that all right. Sometimes the outcomes of games are decided by some of these things and sometimes the outcomes of weeks ahead are decided as well. So I’m not sure that we’re getting it totally right with all that.”
