“Shambles” – Jon Wilkin slams Hull FC red card decision

In a shocking moment between Hull FC and Warrington Wolves, Hull FC halfback Fa’amanu Brown was sent off for head on head contact.

The incident looked like nothing and was only picked up on when it became clear that the player tackled, Warrington Wolves star Ben Currie, had been busted open with blood pouring down his eyebrow.

Things were all quite jovial at first with Jon Wells on Sky Sports saying: “Sorry to anyone eating your dinner at home” at the sight of the blood.

Dave Woods then joked, “You have to posh to be eating dinner at this time and even more so to call it dinner.”

This comical response to the tackle quickly ended when it became clear that Brown was set to be sent off for head on head contact which, even if accidental, is now considered a red card if there’s no mitigation and it was determined that there was no mitigation here and thus Brown was sent off making it three red cards within the first two hours of rugby played by Hull FC in 2024.

Official Marcus Griffiths could be heard saying on Sky Sports: “Head on head contact, it’s forceful and direct.”

Jon Wells added on commentary: “Accidental has nothing to do with it anymore.” Wells explained that the rules now state that this was a red card but Dave Woods said: “I’m not convinced.”

Meanwhile, Sky also revealed that the red card decision was disagreed with by the Warrington Wolves bench.

Jon Wilkin slams Hull FC red card decision

Speaking on Sky Sports after the incident, Jon Wilkin said it was a shambles: “That is a shambles because if that’s a red card, there’s ten red cards in the first half. Which is solely on Haynes carrying the ball, getting hit in the head twice.”

Brian Carney added: “Right, there is a real mismatch between wanting to protect the players’ welfare and reducing head contact and then really sloppy application of that that’s sloppy application of the rule if you want to describe it’s probably a direct application of the rule.”