At halftime at Headingley, Wakefield Trinity like the week before against Huddersfield Giants, were all square with Leeds Rhinos at 0-0.
Then a key moment occurred. Mason Lino put a kick in and could have claimed to have been taken out by Cameron Smith late.
As Richie Myler went to catch it, Samisoni Langi looked to time his tackle perfectly and smash the Leeds fullback.
But instead he got a nasty head knock and had to be helped off from the field.
Remarkably, he was then penalised and Leeds went down the other end of the field and scored through David Fusitu’a leading to a 26-0 win.
The penalty was seemingly for tackling Myler without the ball but it left Wakefield boss Mark Applegarth bemused.
He said of the matter:
“Samisoni Langi took a bad head knock was when he went through on the kick chase. I don’t know what the penalty was for, I didn’t know what it was for there. I was trying to work it out back on video for what the penalty was given for.”
It could be regarded as a game changing decision as the Rhinos went on to open the scoring the minutes later helped by the possession and territory awarded by the penalty.
Making matters worse, today Cameron Smith has been charged for his late on Lino.
He was charged with Grade B Dangerous Contact:
“A defending player makes contact with an opponent after the ball has been released by an opponent in a vulnerable position which causes flexion to the head, neck or spinal column on an attacking player, which poses an unacceptable risk of injury to that player.”
This suggests that the penalty perhaps should have gone the other way given it was such a crucial moment, Wakefield could perhaps feel hard done by.