Hull KR and Leeds coaches slam red cards as united message sent to RFL

Brad Arthur and Willie Peters have taken a united front on the two red cards that overshadowed Friday’s game between Leeds and Hull KR: with both insisting neither decisions were correct.

Both teams were reduced to 12 players in the second half of a hugely dramatic and controversial contest. Rovers prop Sauaso Sue was shown a red card for a tackle on Sam Lisone, before Leeds captain Ash Handley followed shortly after when he hit Arthur Mourgue late.

The two decisions were debated at length by the coaches after the game, with Arthur holding his post-match press conference first and admitting he felt both decisions were closer to warranting sin-binnings.

But crucially, both coaches also admitted they feel they cannot do any more when it comes to instructing their players to tackle safely.

Arthur said: “It’s all happening so fast. I think both ours and theirs could have been possibly yellow cards, but I don’t know.

“What I do know is every club is working hard to make sure their players aren’t hitting players in the head. We’ve done so much work on our target areas and I don’t know what more I can do as a coach.

“Unfortunately it’s determining games, it’s changing outcomes and changing the context of games. It would have been nice to just have 13-on-13 for the full 80 minutes. That’s just the way it is.”

Peters was then told about Arthur’s comments about both being yellow cards and he said: “I agree.

“Absolutely. I don’t know what Jesse is meant to do. Whether they’re ten minutes, you give ten for both. There’s no way they’re red cards.

“We don’t want those to be red cards. I’m not sure what Jesse is meant to do. He lowered his level, but it’s a contact sport and unfortunately we’re going to have some accidents. The players are doing everything they can.

“We don’t coach and teach our players to go out to tackle above the shoulder.”