We have saw the rare appearance of the green card in last night’s Super League clash.
After a slow start to the second half allowing Huddersfield Giants three sets to attack their line, good work from Jack Welsby and Konrad Hurrell sparked the Champions back into life and allowed Tommy Makinson to nail a penalty and extend St Helens’ lead to 14-6.
The momentum now with the Saints, Jonny Lomax produced a lovely ball to Welsby who tore down field.
After that a lovely grubber kick from Lewis Dodd forced a goal line drop out but that wasn’t taken any time quickly with Lomax still down.
Referee Jack Smith stopped the game as Lomax received treatment with concerns over a head injury.
However, when he was deemed fine to continue, Smith issued him with the rare green card forcing him off the field briefly missing Saints’ attacking set.
He did return to the field in time to help foil the Giants’ next attack but the whole incident had the Saints fans in attendance wondering why the Saints weren’t awarded a penalty for a late tackle or if there should have been a card especially in light of Morgan Knowles’ recent ban as well as the cards for Sione Mata’utia, Curtis Sironen and Konrad Hurrell against Leeds Rhinos.
After the game, Sky Sports pundits Kevin Brown and Phil Clarke disagreed over the decision with Brown saying that Jack Ashworth could have pulled out of the tackle:
“I think he has got the ability to pull out and it’s that last lunge that just hits him and for me he doesn’t need to do that. We’re talking split seconds but I’m not sure he does that in training.
“Jonny does dummy the ball a lot as well so if he does dummy that ball and he gets out of the way it’s pretty tough for him.
“He goes off with a green card and I think he’s been unfairly done there.”
However, Clarke disagreed: “He couldn’t pull out of it, I think he was too close. You’re going to get players running at a defender and passing the ball a millisecond before you hit the defender. There’s no way the defender can pull out of every challenge.
Brown stuck to his guns: “It’s not the little nudge, it’s the hitting his head back.”
But Brown insisted that there was a difference between this tackle and others: “There’s a difference between a late tackle and this, obviously late tackles need to be penalised but I didn’t feel that was one.”
