RFL to investigate Catalans Dragons following Leeds Rhinos incidents

On Friday night, Sky Sports viewers were treated to a rather tempestuous affair as Leeds Rhinos travelled to the south of France to take on the Catalans Dragons in an elimination play-off.

Whilst the rugby league product was great – when there was actually rugby being played – most of the match was ill-tempered with four cards being shown to Catalans players.

That has since yielded four bans – one each to Mitchell Pearce, Dylan Napa and Gil Dudson – with the Dragons falling foul of the Disciplinary Match Review Panel.

However, there are set to be further repercussions for the French club with the Rugby Football League set to investigate the incidents at the final whistle.

The first stage was to wait for the reports to come in from the match commissioner and the other officials and now they have been received, a compliance investigation will begin, an RFL spokesperson told Serious About Rugby League.

There were unsavoury scenes at the end of the play-off game with Catalans fans seemingly unhappy with the way in which referee James Child officiated the game.

One reporter who was there, tweeted: “James Child, Jenna Brooks and Terry O’Connor pelted with drinks and plastic glasses on the sidelines after the final hooter here.”

It’s not exactly a good look for the sport, with Leeds head coach Rohan Smith calling the actions ‘disappointing.’

“It’s disappointing, it was a tough contest,” Smith said.

“I thought that the referee adjudicated things strongly in the second-half. There were 50/50 calls that went both ways and when the crowd kept roaring he refereed the game as he wanted which is good to see.

“To see our players treated like that it is disappointing.”

It remains to be seen if there will be any punishment following the incidents but it was a sour way to end a season that promised so much for the Dragons.