Leeds Rhinos boss completely dismisses controversial question in Sky interview

Leeds Rhinos star James Bentley was in the thick of things against Catalans Dragons and was seen speaking to Rohan Smith after the game.

Some felt Bentley deserved a card of some description after an incident with Tariq Sims during the early stages of the game.

Rohan Smith was seen speaking to James Bentley on Sky Sports before his interview with Sky. Unsurprisingly, this led to Jenna Brooks asking what the topic of conversation was.

Answering the question, the Leeds Rhinos Head Coach said: “Oh, a few things. I really like the way James’s game is going. He’s grown a lot as a person over this pre-season and early season. We were just chatting a little bit about getting caught up in the push and shove and that kind of stuff, and the retaliator usually gets caught out.

“But, you know, I thought he played pretty well tonight, James.”

She then asked if Bentley was lucky to stay on the field after a forearm in the face of Tariq Sims in retaliation.

When asked if he was lucky to stay on the field, Smith was not sure what Brooks was referring to and simply said: “What for?”

This led to Brain Carney joking that Smith had “scolded” Brooks.

He then had his say on the wider yellow cards: “I thought Justin Sangare was just very hard done by to go to the bin for his tackle. But I think the other ones are just mistakes.”

Leeds Rhinos boss praises defence

Smith was keen after the game to focus on his side’s character especially in defence as they held on under immense pressure from the Catalans Dragons.

Asked if it was a special win, Smith said: “All wins are special but yeah, there’s a lot of grit, teamwork, resilience that went into that probably first 20-30 minutes of defending in our own half.

“Some of it by our own doing of course, maybe over playing our hand but I love the bravery of our players today to play a bit of footy against the team that are rugged and very very good defensively in the middle of the field. Just to move the ball around and break It wasn’t without a blemish or playing a bit over the top but the defence and the togetherness and the teamwork that went into that, I thought we looked pretty calm and composed with most of our goal on D.”