Leeds Rhinos star James Bentley was unable to finish the game against his former club St Helens on Friday night.
As Leeds Rhinos chased the game having seen their early 8-0 lead overturned into an 18-8 deficit, the Rhinos stretched the play and saw James Bentley hit off the ball by Sione Mata’utia.
If Bentley had the ball, it would have been one of the tackles of the season but unfortunately, he didn’t and Mata’utia was penalised and Bentley was forced to leave the field due to a head knock.
After the game Leeds Rhinos boss Rohan Smith confirmed he was unsure about Bentley’s condition.
He was also asked about the tackle itself which some Leeds fans felt should have been a yellow or a red card.
Smith was very honest about the incident revealing he had mostly missed it as he said: “I haven’t seen it, I saw it live as we were shifting the ball and then as you do as a coach you sort of keep following the ball and you see someone hit the ground in the background but I’ve got no idea what it was.”
Leeds Rhinos boss has his say on St Helens defeat
Credit: Imago Images
Smith was also very honest about the result. The Leeds Rhinos boss was pleased with the performance but said his side didn’t do it for long enough.
He said: “That first half template and the way we defended and the way we transitioned from attack to defence and defence to attack, I thought it was a pretty solid showing of what we want to be about. And even large parts of that second half, we did it well.
“It’s just the moments that we had that really let us down cost us field position badly and then a couple of those moments led directly to points.
“I’m not frustrated today at all by our performance. We’ve had some execution errors, but we’ve played hard, we’ve played with intent, and we’ve tried to beat the other team with our footy on both sides of the ball. So I’m disappointed that we didn’t get the result for the fans and for the players mostly, because they’ve put a lot into that. But at the end of the day, the team that was best for longest got the result.”
