Warrington Wolves’ Josh Drinkwater told to ‘hang his head’ in pundit’s passionate tirade

Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin has told Warrington Wolves’ Josh Drinkwater to ‘hang his head’ after milking a collision against St Helens. Warrington won the game 16-2 at the Halliwell Jones Stadium to move within two points of the Super League’s top two.

However, the game was marred by even more Super League controversy as two men were shown yellow cards on the back of players staying down after contact in the first half. The first incident saw Lachlan Fitzgibbon sin-binned for a high shot, which was missed by referee Chris Kendall but picked up by the video referee during the pause in play that came after Tee Ritson stayed down.

The second saw St Helens’ Matty Lees sent to the sidelines for 10 minutes after hitting Josh Drinkwater late. Again, the referee failed to see an offence in real time, but with Drinkwater failing to get back to his feet, play was stopped and Lees was dealt with. Both decisions can be considered soft and neither Ritson nor Drinkwater left the field for a head injury assessment.

As such, it was a talking point that was dealt with at half-time by Sky Sports’ punditry team with Wilkin accusing Drinkwater of ‘milking it’.

“I think Sam Burgess will be dismayed this is a yellow card,” he said about Warrington Wolves’ sin-binning. “Lachlan Fitzgibbon makes really mild contact with Tee Ritson, who’s fallen in to contact. With these decisions my point is the distance between how we referee the game and how fans and pundits and players see the game has got way too broad.

“Hang your head, Josh Drinkwater. Matty Lees has every right to spray him as he is walking off because he’s milked it. He absolutely gives it to him, saying ‘are you going off’. The way the game is being officiated is so unrecognisable for me and I’m all for protecting head injuries and looking after people but that’s nonsense, it’s trivial nonsense.

“There’s nothing entertaining about watching Matty Lees bump into the back of someone very gently and them lay on the floor for five minutes. There’s nothing entertaining about it.”

As he passionately explained his point of view, Wilkin continued: “At this very ground we talked about Nu Brown’s red card and we laced into that as ‘what are we trying to do’.

“There’s a responsibility without doubt to protect people’s heads and look after people. I can guarantee those two incidents, the two yellows, go nowhere near to fixing the problem, or the impending litigation from past players on the game.  It goes nowhere near to helping players overcome long-term concussive injuries, so what are we talking about? That’s players abusing a loophole in the rules and referees falsely applying rules to cover their own backs. That’s all it is.

“Lachlan Fitzgibbon, minor contact with Tee Ritson, he stays down. Josh Drinkwater, minor contact from Matty Lees, he stays down. Tyler Dupree last night stays down. Come on! Get on with it! It’s boring, I find it boring to watch them doing that. You know Josh Drinkwater is trying to milk it.

“The game is brutal and it’s physical and it’s intense and we have to retain that.”