Sky Sports pundit Phil Clarke labels Leeds Rhinos star Richie Myler ‘a disgrace’ following controversial incident

Last night, Leeds Rhinos were able to just about overcome Huddersfield Giants in an 18-14 win at Headingley.

The fixture was live on Sky Sports with a Wednesday night game a rarity, but it was a feisty affair with some serious quality but also with some controversial incidents thrown in.

One of those controversial incidents involved Leeds’ Richie Myler who, after being tackled by Huddersfield’s Chris Hill, threw his legs into the air to mimic a tip tackle in the dying stages of the game.

With referee Jack Smith and video referee Marcus Griffiths communicating, Hill was sent to the sinbin with less than ten minutes to go.

From that set, Leeds charged up the other end and scored through Blake Austin off a great Brad Dwyer offload, but it was that incident that formed the talking points in the Sky Sports studio after the game – especially with it being such a critical moment in the game.

For pundit Phil Clarke, it was ‘a disgrace’.

“It’s a disgrace, we brought in a rule a few years ago about throwing a ball into a player that was offside to penalise those that threw the ball.

“We need to do the same with this. I disagree with Jon Wilkin who said it was clever.

“Richie Myler plays for a penalty and there is nothing wrong with him. We talked about this sport as an honest game but that is long gone; that is a disgrace.

“If that doesn’t change I don’t want to watch or commentate on a sport where that happens.

“By using video replays for on field decisions we have encouraged things like that, it needs to change.”

All in all, it was a brilliant advert for rugby league with big hits, superb skill and stellar tries leading the way, but unfortunately, that incident took precedence for how much it changed the game.