HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS head coach Ian Watson has spoken out against comments made by Sky Sports pundit Terry O’Connor during the club’s clash with St Helens at the Magic Weekend.
Watson’s side went down 48-6 to the reigning champions, but two flashpoints in the first-half seemed to derail the Giants with Luke Yates being sinbinned for a cannonball tackle on Tommy Makinson before Joe Greenwood had to leave the field with blood pouring down his face.
For O’Connor, Yates’ tackle should have yielded a ban.
“It’s ten minutes at least in the sinbin for me,” O’Connor said at the time.
“I don’t want to be judge and jury over this but he has got to pick up a ban.”
That being said, Watson is unimpressed by those comments and believes that the media “can kill the game” at times.
“I think anytime anyone goes near a cannonball tackle, everyone kicks up a big fuss about it. The media have a huge job in rugby league, but sometimes they can kill the game with the way they speak about it,” Watson said.
“They are there to help grow the game as well. Luke Yates got a Grade A but he didn’t get charged heavily because the Match Review Panel felt he did did take some care and consideration.
“But in the heat of the moment especially when you are commentating you have to make split-second decisions as you do as a player. Terry will have seen it from the outset and thought that didn’t look good.
“For me, I spoke with Luke Yates and we can’t do that tackle anymore but it wasn’t anything malicious. He has lost his feet, Tommy Makinson has pulled away and Luke has caught him.
“It was more accidental than intentional, otherwise he would have had a ban but the media have split seconds to come up with something and that is obviously a talking point.”
Watson went on to call for more angles into the head clash between Joe Greenwood and Alex Walmsley which forced the former off the field and to fail his HIA.
“I would have been more interested to show a couple more angles of the Joe Greenwood head collision. We end up with a man sinbinned and they don’t but he gets put on a charge from the Match Review Panel.
“The reports have all said it was a head clash so it is what it is.”
