HULL KR head coach Willie Peters has hit out at the three penalty points handed to Tom Davies for Grade B Head Contact.
Star halfback Mikey Lewis and new signing Davies both picked up three penalty points for their Grade B charges of ‘Striking’ and ‘Head Contact’ respectively during their 44-2 win over York Knights in the Challenge Cup Third Round.
But, whilst Peters has no issues with Lewis’ charge, he took umbrage with Davies’.
“No complaints on one but I’m not convinced on the other. On the Davies one, there are accidents that happen in rugby league and I understand that we need to protect the player first, no complaints from that and we’ll do everything obviously to work with the RFL around that,” Peters told BBC Radio Humberside.
“But the framework in place doesn’t account for a slight accident, a slight slip and there is that head contact, then it’s deemed as foul play because you’re getting points and eventually there will be suspension against that player.”
Peters went further on Davies’ ban: “There was no intent whatsoever. Tom doesn’t want to go in with his head or have that head collision himself because obviously he is potentially getting hurt as well so there’s going to be accidents in our game.
“It’s unfortunate, it’s a contact sport. So I don’t agree. At the time there was no penalty and the player got up. If there’s foul play, you won’t get anything from me.
“I just think there needs to be a little bit of common sense around each incident to look at it and go, okay, was there intent? If there was foul play, you won’t get anything from me.
“Mikey Lewis has owned his (charge) and we’ll keep that obviously in-house and we accept the points that he got and we move on but Tom’s is a totally different situation for me. There was no intent whatsoever, there was no malice in it. It’s rugby league and things are going to happen.
“Last year players were getting punished for it and they still are for something that they are not intending to go out to do.
“If it was intentional, if Tom Davies led with his head and it was intentional, I’d be all for it: fine him, give him points, do whatever you need to do, because it’s outside the rules.”
