Warrington Wolves defeated Hull FC 36-10 to claim a first win of the season but it came in hugely controversial circumstances as Hull FC were reduced to 12 men for a very surprising red card at the end of the first half.
This was because new halfback Fa’amanu Brown accidentally collided heads with Ben Currie. Currie bled from the incident but it seemed accidental and no one was expecting a penalty but due to the new rules, Brown was sent off for head on head contact.
After the game, Hull FC head Coach Tony Smith said to Sky Sports: “There’s some really strange things happening. It’s hard for the players to understand and cope with at the moment as well. We’re playing on pretty wet pitches and it’s hard for them to get their footing right, their timing right and we’re making some pretty big decisions that are having effects on outcomes of games, no doubt.”
Hull FC boss raises key questions
Smith also raised key questions about the approach being introduced into Super League.
He said: “We obviously, we know these rules are being brought in for player welfare, what do we do? We include everybody and we make sure that we’re rational about how we implement it or we give people time to train to change habits that you know in styles that they’ve been using for 20 years and then we’re asking them to to do some other stuff it’s it’s a big call on them and you know we’ve been doing our best to do it over pre-season.”
He would also add a point about the decisions impacting his side weeks down the line with bans: “It’s really hard for them to get timing and to get that all right. Sometimes the outcomes of games are decided by some of these things and sometimes the outcomes of weeks ahead are decided as well. So I’m not sure that we’re getting it totally right with all that.”
Hull FC will look for a first win of the season, and hopefully avoid a fourth red card, next week as they take on London Broncos who lost to Catalans Dragons.
