“Sometimes we are a bit off and we were tonight” – Smith proud that his players found a way to win

“The video referee is killing our game.” Those were the thoughts of Hull Kingston Rovers boss Tony Smith after his side’s 34-28 victory over Super League’s bottom club Leigh Centurions at the Leigh Sports Village.

However, though he remained calm about the result, the Robins’ Head Coach was left frustrated with the repeated use of the video referee during the contest.

He said, “We won the game, whether I was nervous or not. I was pretty relaxed about it.

“If we had lost then you have to get on with it and look back then and learn from it. Nowadays, I am just willing to accept whatever the result is.

“I did get bored a few times waiting for the video referee. I am going to have to go back to bringing a book again as I threatened to do that some years ago.

“It just kills our game I think. It really kills us. I would rather them get it wrong and get it done quickly honestly.”

The Robins fell behind 4-0 early on but then found themselves leading 24-10 just after half-time and looked set for another comfortable win against Leigh.

But then the match had a massive shift in momentum when both Albert Vete and George Lawler were sin-binned for a shoulder charge and high tackle respectively.

Leigh capitalised and scored three tries to lead 28-24 before KR scored two tries late on to seal the win.

Smith was sceptical of his side’s ill-discipline but remains upbeat with the attitude shown by his players to grind out another win.

He added, “High shots happen in games. Sometimes that is down to lack of control but I will not get carried away and be overly critical.

“Would it not be great to go to work every day and be excellent? We cannot be and sometimes we are a bit off and we were tonight.

“I will not be too hard on them. They are fighting hard at the moment and working hard for each other.

“There is great spirit in the camp. Even when there are changes in the team, they find a way to dig in, even when we are down on numbers and when we are penalised.

“I will not be too critical this week. It is easy to sit in the stand and say ‘they should have done this and that better’, some days it just does not flow.”