Super League boss perplexed by controversial decision

Huddersfield Giants interim head coach Luke Robinson has given his take on Sam Lisone’s collision with Olly Russell on Thursday night. The Giants lost 34-6 to Brad Arthur’s side in the Super League, but the scoreline could have been very different had the referee acted to penalise Lisone towards the end of the first half.

Carrying the ball into the Huddersfield defensive line, the forward appeared to lift his non-ball carrying arm as Russell made initial contact and caught the makeshift hooker in the face with a forceful elbow. The incident went unnoticed by the referee Marcus Griffiths at the time, who allowed play to continue to the next play the ball.

As such, with Russell opting to bounce straight back up to his feet, the video referee was unable to intervene and pull play back in order for Lisone to be penalised. The incident, which came at a pivotal point of the Super League contest, was placed on report, but the officials’ inability to act arguably allowed Leeds to assert their dominance and take control of the game.

“He’s elbowed him straight in the face, hasn’t he?”, Robinson said when asked about the incident after the game. “The referee said he can’t do anything during the game, he’s not allowed to do anything during the game because the play the ball had already gone so far.

“I don’t know, I don’t know the rules, I assumed that once the video ref sees it you can go back and dismiss a player or deem that he doesn’t need to be dismissed.

“Obviously if the play has gone that far I understand you can’t give a penalty because its gone, but the fourth official straight away came to me and said ‘no, nothing can be done at this moment in time’.”

Of course, had Russell stayed down and forced the stoppage of play, Lisone may well have been dealt with. Asked if that set a dangerous precedent, Robinson said: “Don’t get me wrong, we don’t want it to turn into football and if anybody watches the game now, players stay down.

“They stay down because back in my day or even a few years ago, not everything was televised so you had to put it on report because you don’t get a second view of it. Now they do get that and players understand that they are going to be constantly reviewing it. I don’t want it to turn into football and I’m really proud of Olly if I’m honest.”

He continued: “It is a bit of dangerous ground. Let’s be honest, if he’d stayed down it is a penalty, isn’t it? It is. We don’t want play acting in our sport and I’m really chuffed Olly didn’t do it but it would probably have swung in our favour if he had done.”