Phil Clarke slams “foolish decision”

As Castleford Tigers lost 12-7 to Hull KR last night, they were reduced to 12 men.

Liam Watts has been sent to the sin bin after coming onto the field shortly before.

The incident saw him hit Jordan Abdull late and was subsequently sin binned.

It didn’t help that this came shortly after Bureta Faraimo’s big hit on Corey Hall as he passed to Ryan Hall with Marcus Griffiths deeming that hit to be late so when Watts did the same he was shown a yellow for what Bill Arthur called “a nudge.”

The Sky pundits Terry O’Connor and Barrie McDermott questioned the decision to penalise Faraimo for the late hit but said “Liam Watts it is, not long onto the field. Now that is a penalty. It is no surprise he has gone to the sin bin with a yellow card.

“I think you can track that back to an error and their execution and over their last two or three minutes their brains are bubbling a bit and they are trying to even things up and they are just rattling cages at the moment.”

Later, pundit Phil Clarke had his say describing it as “foolish” from Watts.

He said:

“I think what he has done here is wrong. It was a foolish decision and he has been sin binned as a result.

“I think what they have to find that level of aggression.”

However, he defended Sam Hall’s tackle which saw Jordan Abdull go off for a Head Injury Assessment:

“The Sam Hall tackle I thought was a great tackle. He had a big impact off the bench.

“Let’s hope Jordan Abdull is okay.”

And he was passing the HIA in time for the second half.