Jesse Sene-Lefao had “no malice” in red card incident, insists Daryl Powell
Photo courtesy of Richard Long
Castleford coach Daryl Powell said Jesse Sene-Lefao had “no intent” in using his knees that resulted in the forward being sent off in their defeat at Wigan.
The Tigers lost 26-8 against the Warriors at the DW Stadium on Thursday night, with Adrian Lam’s side securing second spot in the league and home advantage in the play-offs.
Sene-Lefao was shown a red card in the 66th minute for dropping his knees on tackled Wigan prop Ollie Partington.
Powell said: “I’m not sure he intended to do it and I’m not sure he made contact with him but I can see why he [Partington] ended up on his backside.
“There is no intent in there and I don’t actually think he made contact. I don’t think you can judge on intent to be honest because you don’t know whether there is or there isn’t.
“I don’t think there was an awful lot of contact there, I thought his knee hit the floor so it will be interesting.
“Jesse is a godly man, he prays every minute he can so I don’t there is an awful lot of malice in him. I’ve never seen any malice in him at all so I don’t think there is a massive amount of intent there.”
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