“I think…” – Hull FC boss speaks out on Jack Ashworth ban

Hull FC Head Coach Tony Smith has had his say on Jack Ashworth being charged and banned following an accidental head clash against Catalans Dragons last week.

Ashworth was initially banned for three games and charged with Grade D but the Hull FC forward had the charge downgraded to a Grade C and only two games.

Before the appeal, Tony Smith said to BBC Radio Humberside: “I think when we all ask coaches and players, when we heard about lowering of the tackle height, I think we’ve all bought in. I think the intention is there to do that. But I think there always needs to be an understanding of accidents and when they happen and how they can happen. But also some tolerance from within the sport in regard to changing of techniques and how quick we can do that. I think that’s probably been the questionable part about it.”

Hull FC boss highlights accidental nature of sin bin

Quite rightly, Smith also highlighted the accidental nature of the incident as he said: “Listen, I saw an accident there the other day. Fair enough, if they want to sin bin. And when I screw my nose up about that, a sin binning can affect the outcome of the game. And I think, you know, that’s enough sometimes with some of the incidents that we’ve seen.

“That’s enough. You know, the outcome of the game, the stress and playing stress and physical stress it puts on the rest of the players is enormous. You know, and we’re talking about welfare of players as well and they’re more likely to get more fatigued and put their heads in the wrong spots and push their bodies into areas that they wouldn’t normally go to. Because of some of the sin-binnings that we’re getting.

“But nevertheless, I was thinking that we’re going to try and lower the tackling target of all our players and I think we’ve done that to a whole lot of cases. But then to possibly determine the outcome of games for the next three weeks afterwards, I think it’s a bit too severe for us. I just think we underestimate how much a sin bin or a send off can, the impact that it has on teams and players and coaches. If we just have a 10 minute sin bin and it’s for something that we can rectify through technique, we’re going to work hard on it because we need 13 on the park. You know, we know as good as any team at the moment, we need 13 on the park, you know, to compete. So we’re going to work our socks off to not have those sort of penalties that cost us sin bins or send-offs.”

Tony Smith reflects on other incidents

Smith was also asked about other incidents at the weekend that were perhaps worse. He said:

“There’s a number over the weekend that we could probably look at and go what’s worse. That’s the problem. I see another couple of coaches, whether we’re moaning about it, I don’t know. We’re trying to support the whole system. We are. We’re trying to support it, but I think there’s been some inconsistencies in trying to implement some of this. We’re trying to fix things. We’re trying to buy in, but there are some things that make you scratch your head.

“I think it’s been difficult for us as coaches and also players to understand sometimes, and supporters. I think they’re very crucial in all this. If they’re not quite getting it and understanding as to why certain things happen in certain ways, they start to question the integrity and I hate that. I hate that we’re, when we get to a point where we’re questioning the integrity of our sport. You know, the sooner we can get away from those sort of things, the better.”