Hull FC fans were already unhappy with their side’s showing in the dismal 26-18 loss to Wakefield Trinity last Friday night, live on Sky Sports.
But, they did have a case when saying that Wakefield’s Liam Hood should have been sent off after a horrible shoulder charge on Hull’s Manu Ma’u.
It was only because of the Hull man’s willingness to get back on his feet straightaway that it perhaps wasn’t punished, but it doesn’t make for good showing as seen here:
Awful https://t.co/qieUUTEwVz
— Callum Walker (@cwalker_1995) August 22, 2022
If Hood is found guilty at an Operations Tribunal tomorrow night, he could be sat out for as many as five matches, but, the main question is why wasn’t he sent off during the Friday night game when the video referee was able to rewatch the incident?
Though it will hinder Wakefield in their final three games of the season, it will not do anything for Hull who had to battle against 13 men when it should have been 12.
Having said that, it would have been difficult to predict a Hull win given how bad they were for 60 minutes of that game, but it would have made things a lot more interesting.
That begs the question, should the video referee have more power to call on a referee to halt the game even after the play has been and gone?
It may result in more stoppages, but it would also be more likely that incidents such as these would go unpunished because, to be fair to referees, they see things in real time and have to have eyes everywhere.
That’s where the video referee comes in to help the man in the middle, but on this occasion that didn’t happen and Hull fans have been left to rue that decision.
