Lee Radford’s surprising say on Jack Welsby avoiding ban for high tackle

On Sunday Castleford Tigers’ only try against Champions St Helens was a penalty try as Jack Broadbent headed for the corner but was hit high by Jack Welsby.

Many felt that a card should have been shown the way of Welsby but none was forthcoming.

The fullback then escaped a ban but surprisingly Castleford boss Lee Radford was happy with this verdict.

He said to BBC Sport West Yorkshire that he is a fan of the new system which avoids banning people in favour of fines: “No, I’m a fan of it [not banning players.] I’m a fan of not charging people.”

Speaking on the new system, Radford said: “Yeah, I’ve been an advocate for that. I understand one of the years was the pandemic year, but if you look at the game over the last couple of seasons teams have been in the deep depth of squad numbers towards the back of the year.

“If keeping blokes on the field through less suspension keeps those numbers a little bit lower then that’s going to be good for the game.”

When it was put to him that people were saying on social media that if it had been one of his players, Liam Watts who picked up plenty of bans last year, he would have been hit with a six match ban, Radford laughed and simply said: “I’m not on social media.”