Leeds Rhinos boss gives St Helens Magic Weekend sin bin verdict

Coach Brad Arthur “felt sorry” for the opposition player sin-binned during Leeds Rhinos’ 17-4 Magic Weekend defeat of St Helens, but insisted it was the right call.

Rhinos were clinging on to a six-point lead when Saints winger Lewis Murphy was shown a yellow card following a collision in the air with Leeds counterpart Alfie Edgell, who had to go off for a head injury assessment.

The decision was made by video referee Ben Thaler, after numerous replays and Leeds went two scores clear with a drop goal following the resulting penalty.

“It’s accidental, but at the end of the day, it’s the player’s responsibility not to make contact with someone’s head,” Arthur said of the incident in his post-match press conference.

“That’s just what has been officiated for the last 10 weeks and you can’t change it now. I feel sorry for the young fella, but those are the rules.”

Leeds Rhinos’ boss gives his take on win over St Helens

The win was only Leeds’ second in 20 meetings with Saints and came after they led 10-0 at the interval.

Saints hit back early in the second half and Rhinos found themselves under huge pressure for a 20-minute spell as a string of errors kept them pinned near their own line, but – their defence held strong and they sealed a precious two points in the final quarter.

After seeing his men fail to hold on to two-score leads against Warrington Wolves and Hull KR, Arthur felt the precious victory with Saints was a step forward.

“It has been a long six weeks, with some big games and every game we’ve had to fight really hard,” he said.

“We got what we deserved tonight. Over the last six weeks we’ve put ourselves in a position to win these games.

“We made it hard for ourselves tonight, but we found a way – we hung on and I think that’s the result of working extremely hard.

“I thought we were very brave and very tough and that’s what it takes to beat really good sides. They threw plenty at us in the second half and we had to scramble hard.”