Salford ‘robbed’ with late penalty
LEEDS RHINOS SALFORD RED DEVILS 18 16 IAN Watson claimed Salford were “robbed” by the officials in their lastgasp 18-16 defeat at Leeds.
The Red Devils were on course to preserve their unbeaten record in the Super 8s Qualifiers when they hit back for a third time in a tense encounter through Derrell Olpherts late on.
But Liam Sutcliffe knocked over a penalty on the full-time hooter to hand the Rhinos victory and leave head coach Watson fuming at referee James Child and his assistants.
“I think we were robbed in the end,” he said. “It always seems to be away games. How he can give a penalty in the last minute to Leeds underneath our posts, yet we had a dead-set penalty at 16-16 that wasn’t given when they had three markers and all their middles offside. That wins us the game.
“At that level, to miss that is a bit of a joke. In the NRL referees don’t decide games; for me the referee has decided the game there.
“More games over here are decided by decisions rather than letting the players decide the outcome of the game.
“In the Qualifiers where teams are playing for their survival, you have to get those big decisions right. For us there, that’s a win. I’m a little bit fuming.
“That would have put us on 10 points and made us safe. A referee of that calibre, you’d like to think picks that up. In a situation like that you’ve got to get that call right.
“There are loads of positives to take but there’s been an injustice at the back end there. We deserved to win that game.”
The result saw Leeds join Salford at the top of the Qualifiers table on eight points.
With Championship opponents to come for both teams in their remaining two games, they are fancied to retain their Super League status.
On a day when the Super 8s were axed in favour of a return to the traditional one-up, one-down system of promotion and relegation, the tension was palpable as both teams dared not lose.
But it was the Rhinos who edged it to inflict a first Qualifiers defeat on the Red Devils and leave the champions on the brink of retaining their place in Super League.
Director of rugby Kevin Sinfield felt the Rhinos underlined their progress by edging the kind of match they have lost on many occasions in 2018. “A win’s a win,” he said. “Both teams were edgy because of the competition and how it’s structured. Both teams were trying not to lose the game rather than win it. Thankfully we came through it.
“We would have lost that game eight weeks ago. Any tight game we’ve been involved in we’ve landed on the wrong side of it so I’m delighted with the two points. We found a way to win and that’s a real good sign.”