Liam Moore reveals why James McDonnell was shown red card against St Helens

Leeds Rhinos’ battle with St Helens on Friday night was as controversial and fierce as you will ever see in Super League and showed why rugby league, even when teams aren’t executing as well as they should, is still the greatest game of all.

One of the controversial moments came with three minutes to go.

Leeds were attacking but squandered a huge chance to win the game when Sam Walters’ offload went into touch as he looked for Nene MacDonald.

Then a huge pile in was sparked with an altercation between Jonny Lomax and James McDonnell at the centre of it all.

McDonnell was then shown a red card leaving many Leeds fans confused as there seemed to be no clear footage of the incident that showed any real wrong doing.

However, Sky Sports’ coverage of Liam Moore’s conversation with skippers Lomax and Cameron Smith (James Roby was off the field) picked up Moore’s audio in which he explained the touch judge had seen a punch from McDonnell direct to the head.

Here is what Moore said:

“It’s your job as captains to keep your players under control, we have three minutes to go, three minutes 20, what I’m going to do is I have a report from the touch judge that James McDonnell has thrown a direct punch to the head.

“As captains what I want is for both teams to be controlled for the last three minutes. Okay?”