IRELAND’s World Cup hopes are now hanging by a thread after being put to the sword by Lebanon in yesterday’s fast and frenetic encounter at the Leigh Sports Village.
The Wolfhounds went down 32-14 as the likes of Mitchell Moses, Jacob Kiraz and Khaled Rajab ran rings around the Irish defence on numerous occasions.
However, there were also a number of flashpoints that stood out during the game, including a half-time scuffle between Robbie Mulhern and Jalal Bazzaz which ended with both men being sinbinned.
Leeds Rhinos’ James Bentley, however, was seemingly at the forefront of perhaps the most controversial moment in the game, accusing a Lebanese player of ‘grabbing his b*lls’ with referee Adam Gee placing the incident on report.
The Match Review Panel will almost certainly be looking at that incident later on today with Bentley both in pain and furious at what had just gone on in the tackle.
The two Lebanon men in the tackle were Kayne Kalache and Andrew Kazzi but it was unclear which one of the pair Bentley was aiming his furore at.
He’s not too pleased is he, he’s been in a couple of collisions hasn’t he. He got Mitchell Moses with a great shot, didn’t he, defensively,” one of the BBC commentators uttered.
“He’s complaining of something to the referee, maybe the referee is going to put this on report and have a little look at it or maybe Ashley Klein the video referee can help out.”
“He took a little contact in an uncomfortable place, shall we put it that way,” commentator Sharon Shortle reported.
“He’s certainly not happy about it and understandably not happy about it.”
