“I think…” – Rohan Smith speaks out on James Bentley ban

Leeds Rhinos have lost star back-rower James Bentley to a one match ban for striking after he was found at the higher end of the Grade B offence and Rohan Smith has now had his say.

Speaking to the press after this charge and after it was revealed that the club would not be appealing the charge.

Smith said on the charge: “I think, firstly, there’s been a few of these incidents through the opening part of the season where the retaliator has got himself into trouble so I think that may or may not have been factored into the equation there so I’m not quite sure. James’s has got a bit of a reputation, but I think it’s been sort of inaccurately framed as of late.

“He’s reacted a couple of times in that game which obviously we need to work on that and he knows it’s not okay to react.

“But also you know he got a clip around the jaw and then he got pushed into a concrete wall. So those moments of brief reaction need to be attended to, no doubt. But in his general gameplay, the other teams are trying to get under his skin but he’s not actually reacting in general play.”

Rohan Smith has his say as Leeds Rhinos stars charged

Smith also went on to say that Bentley has changed the way he’s playing the game: “He’s changed how he’s playing the game and he’s actually refrained from getting into scuffles at times. We’re okay with that verdict and it’ll be something that James does need to learn from but he’s also shown good signs of constraint.”

He didn’t have anything to say on Catalans avoiding charges whilst he was surprised at Justin Sangare’s charge: “I haven’t looked at the other charges. I got my message from Paul Cullen to say that James had a grade B and Justin had a grade B as well, which I was quite surprised by Justin’s charge.”

On this, he added: “If that was a Grade B I’m not sure what a Grade A looks like.”