HULL FC head coach Tony Smith has explained that he believes that Ligi Sao was “very vulnerable” in the tackle from Hull KR’s Matt Parcell that saw both men banned following a feisty Hull derby.
Parcell was handed a one-match ban with Sao successfully downgrading a charge of Grade D Head Contact to a Grade B, meaning he too was handed a one-match suspension.
The incident saw Parcell and Sao tussling on the floor with the Rovers man contacting the latter’s face before Sao threw up his knees off the floor in a bid to get up.
Now Smith has backed Sao for his reaction, detailing how tough it would be to keep calm in that situation.
“It was all within a timeframe of two seconds and he (Sao) felt very, very, very vulnerable,” Smith told BBC Humberside.
“When you’re on your back and you feel like you’re unprotected, you’ve got to sometimes take things into your own hands and I think he was certainly trying to protect himself.
“I think most people would go into that (fight or flight) mode. I’m not saying he fought but it’s hard to lay there and relax, and not try and protect yourself.
“And anybody who suggests that they could do that and restrain themselves from acting against what he felt like was an attack on him, that’s pretty hard.
“I think most human beings would probably have reacted very similarly to Ligi under the circumstances that he was under.”
Smith will also be without new signings Herman Ese’ese and Franklin Pele following their suspensions from the same game.
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