Leeds Rhinos coach Brad Arthur praises 'bravery' in win v Wakefield Trinity, says 3 sin-bins 'fair enough'

Maika Sivo was yellow-carded following a high tackle on Josh Rourke just before half-time. Captain Ash Handley followed him - reducing Leeds to 11 players - for a professional foul when video referee Tom Grant ruling he had shoved Rourke off the ball as the Wakefield man attempted to touch down for a try early in the second period. Jack Bird was sin-binned five minutes from time for throwing the ball away to prevent Trinity taking a tap restart.

With an 11-minute stoppage after an early injury to Wakefield’s Cameron Scott and several lengthy video referee deliberations, the match lasted well over two hours and Arthur described it as the “longest game in history”. The win was Rhinos’ fifth in succession, all with he same 17 players and means they go into next weekend’s break top of Betfred Super League.

Arthur said: “Overall I am extremely proud of how brave the boys were and how physical. I thought they were physically very, very good - especially at the start of the game. We dominated, but it just became a really weird contest.”

The coach felt Leeds coped well when they were a man down, something they practiced in pre-season, though he admitted a couple of missed tackles led to Wakefield tries. There were no complaints from Arthur about any of the yellow cards, which he said were “probably fair enough”.

He reflected: “Ash’s one, it’s hard - he’s trying to get into a contest then the ball bounced the other way. He was anticipating he was about to get the ball, how does he pull out of that? It’s a tough one. Jack’s was just silly. Maika’s, I’ll have to watch the tackle again - there’s no malice in it, but if he does make contact with the head, probably fair enough.”

Sivo scored a hat-trick to take his tally of tries for the season to 17 in Super League and 19 overall. He now faces an anxious wait for the verdict from Monday’s match review panel meeting.