“I can’t accept it” – Leeds Rhinos boss slams video referee decision

Leeds Rhinos may have gotten the win over Salford Red Devils on Friday night, but Head Coach Rohan Smith wasn’t entirely happy.

As Smith assessed his side’s display, he highlighted the number of stoppages throughout the game.

He said: “I was really proud of the players and the work they’ve put in to get to this point we played tough tonight. We played hard played a bit of footy at times but I really liked the calmness and composure and it didn’t all go to plan but the togetherness we had and they looked like they were enjoying the battle together.

“I felt like it was a two-hour game a lot of really long stoppages. You like skill, you like collision and you want to see attrition. There wasn’t much attrition in that.

“That was a good game for round one I think in lots of ways. Just would have been good if we weren’t stopping the game for blokes to do their boots up or get treated.”

Leeds Rhinos boss questions video referee call

The longest stoppage came when Leeds debutant Paul Momirovski was sin binned after a number of reviews after no penalty was originally given.

Smith questioned why it took so long and the validity of the decision. He said:

“Are we going to accept that’s just an atmosphere killer. You go and make another pot of tea at home, if you’re at home watching that. Yeah, I’m all for player safety. There’s nobody that I’ve come across that looks after the players’ safety as well as what we are in this club.

“So we’re all for that, but how many replays was there of Momirowski’s tackle. So if you have to look at that many, are you conclusive? Now initially it wasn’t called a penalty, so they’ve overruled the initial call on the back of 20 to 30 replays, and everyone’s got their breath back, the attrition’s completely gone out of the game, and we’re still not 100% sure if we’ve got it right.

“You know it’s mixed so I can’t accept that that’s the way we’re going with it. He didn’t hit him in the head that was clear. That was clear very early in the piece so once you get past that bit it should be leave it to the match review to work it out because that’s what they’re there for.”