'Cheating' players & fussy refs 'killing game' say Leeds Rhinos fans after loss to Hull KR

The YEP’s supporters jury felt Rhinos gave their all in a thrilling contest, but reckoned a sending-off on each side, plus other decisions by referee Chris Kendall, overshadowed the players’ efforts. Leeds now move on to Magic Weekend and hopes are high for a rare win against St Helens on Saturday evening.

GAVIN MILLER

I can’t tell you much about the last eight and a half minutes of the game because as soon as Ash Handley was red-carded, I left the stadium. I mentioned this earlier in the year, but rugby league has become virtually non-contact, a glorified game of touch and pass and is simply no longer the sport I love.

So sanitised is the sport that at Headingley on Friday night we saw one yellow and two red cards for offences that wouldn’t have even been penalties a few years ago. What this ‘absolutely no contact with the head’ officiating has meant is that players are now feigning injuries to stop play to get the video ref to look for any contact ‘without mitigating circumstances’ to get players red and yellow cards. I cannot stress this enough, the game is dying, it is going to die a slow death - it is becoming unwatchable.

Players are cheating, diving and the strong physical game I fell in love with is ceasing to exist any more I left early and I’m unlikely to travel to Magic Weekend, previously my favourite weekend of the year, because I’m not prepared to go and watch this great sport being ruined by over-officiating and players cheating.

DAVID MUHL

I left Headingley on Friday feeling gutted by the loss, yet proud of the team’s effort. I also saw one of the best tries you will see all season. Riley Lumb’s effort after interplay with Ash Handley was out of the top drawer.

Unfortunately, not for the first time this season, fans came away from the game talking about the referee and not the superb game they had watched. With two reds and one yellow card dished out, Chris Kendall was under scrutiny.

I understand the need to protect players, but anyone who has played the game will realise that in a contact sport it is sometimes impossible to avoid contact with the head. I just wonder what the referees expect players to do. You cannot change your position in a split second.

For me, the two reds were a penalty at most and Sinfield’s yellow was probably just about correct. Another point of controversy for me was Hull KR’s first try, scored when Leeds were down to 11 men with Sinfield in the bin and Jake Connor off the field after a green card. I thought green cards were brought in to speed the game up, not penalise teams who have a player injured with a dislocated finger.

I thought Leeds were the best team over 80 minutes. They performed excellently overall, with strong defence and impressive attacking rugby. Connor had another superb game, a brilliant kick for Ash’s try was the highlight. Lachie Miller had a great game and caused Rovers problems all night. After regularly criticising Sam Lisone, I have to say this was probably his best performance in a Leeds shirt. On this performance Leeds should fear no one and I am looking forward to a win against Saints in Newcastle on Saturday.

BECKY OXLEY

Round nine saw Hull KR visit AMT Headingley and I was eager for an exciting match. It certainly provided several talking points, particularly regarding Chris Kendall’s decisions on potential red cards, which left supporters questioning their validity.

We remained competitive throughout the game, matching Hull KR’s performance. However, injuries to Ryan Hall and Jake Connor could complicate matters for Magic Weekend.

It’s unfortunate that questionable referee decisions are overshadowing the matches. While I typically advise against letting referees dictate the game, I genuinely believe neither incident warranted a red card and this has tainted what was otherwise an exhilarating rugby match.

Sadly, the focus has shifted to social media discussions rather than the game itself, which is detrimental to the sport. On a positive note, the women’s team advanced to the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup following a strong victory over Huddersfield. I’m excited to see how they perform this season after such a promising start.

Looking ahead, our next match is the Magic Weekend against St Helens, a fantastic event for all fans. I hope it turns out to be another thrilling game.

IAIN SHARP

The road to Rugby League Hell is paved with what-ifs, could-haves and should-haves. Another addition to that long line was Leeds’ meeting with Hull KR at Headingley. From the off, a potential disaster was on the cards, conceding an early score to a team beaten only once in the league this year, Jack Sinfield in the sin-bin and Ryan Hall off with a dodgy ankle.

Even a relatively recent Leeds would have curled up faster than a British Rail sandwich from comedy routines of old. This Leeds are different gravy and dug in to go two scores up at 14-6.

From that point, it should have been an issue of game management to bring the result home, but that was without the intervention of the match officials. First was the dismissal of Sauaso (a boy named) Sue and long-standing rugby fans will know, once a referee has exposed his red card to the atmosphere there’s a good chance he’ll get it out again or it’ll dissolve - or something - after being exposed to the light. The Leeds lucky winner was that well known head hunter and filthy beast, er, Ash Handley.

Neither of them looked worth a dismissal in what wasn’t a dirty game by any stretch and 10 minutes in the bin for both offences would have been fair. The situation is not helped by video officials running through each incident in slow motion, which at times can make

things look a lot worse than they appear at normal speed and totally ignore players who are

committed to a contact and cannot pull out at the last moment.

Perhaps Leeds can take solace that they pushed Rovers close and given the play-off system, the league is neither won nor lost over games like this. As long as you’re in the top-six space at the end of the season (which I am still confident Leeds will be) that is all that matters.

TOM GOLDSWORTHY

It was the same old story for Leeds on Friday night as we narrowly lost out to Hull KR in what was a great game of rugby league, until the referee got involved. Neither of the red cards was deserved and every time someone breathed near Mikey Lewis, Hull KR received a penalty. Also, I'm not sure how their final try was not ruled out for obstruction; it was the most blatant call of the night, which was somehow missed by both the on-field and video referee.

Moving on to the actual game, Leeds need to get better at seeing out games and not letting a poor 10 minutes decide the outcome. It felt like an exact copy from the Warrington game. We lack composure in key moments to get us over the line and we have been punished for it again. Hopefully we can learn from these mistakes going forward, but it is obvious we missed the leadership of Cameron Smith, Brodie Croft and Ryan Hall on Friday.

Overall, it was a good performance. I know it's not acceptable to lose any game, but for this side to be going toe-to-toe with teams who were supposedly light years ahead of us just shows the level of improvement Brad Arthur has brought to Leeds. Once again, I thought the defence was outstanding. KR did a fantastic job of starving us of possession and field position in the first half, but we kept them out on every occasion bar one. When we get key players back and learn how to see a game out, we will be a serious threat in this competition.

Looking ahead to the Magic Weekend game, Saints look to be in freefall since the last time we played them, which we need to take advantage of. We are already down on numbers, but if things don’t get much worse we should have a team capable of adding to their misery, which would be the perfect way to bounce back from last week’s loss.