Castleford Tigers put up a good show against Wigan last Thursday night at the DW Stadium.
But unfortunately they suffered a serious blow when Mahe Fonua was sinbinned by the referee Chris Kendall for a supposed late tackle on Jai Field in the 39th minute of the game.
At that point the Tigers were well in the game, losing 10-6 heading into the interval.
But while Fonua was off the field, Wigan scored two tries early in the second half from Ethan Havard and Field himself, stretching the score to 22-6 by the time Fonua came back on the field and by then Castleford had a mountain to climb.
What had seemed to be a very evenly contested game had turned into a one-sided contest.
Admittedly, we can’t say that Wigan’s two tries would definitely not have been scored if Fonua had still been on the field. But it would have been good for the spectators and TV viewers if we had been able to find out.
Like the coaches and players who have complained about this decision, I found it difficult to know what Fonua could possibly have done to avoid the collision with Field, who had got rid of the ball a split second earlier.
We all want to see as much safety as possible for all the players on the field, but when an incident like that occurs, which in previous years wouldn’t have registered in the mind of the referee, then we need to have an injection of common sense.
Chris Kendall is a capable referee who is clearly following the guidelines laid down by the RFL, but when a team is reduced to twelve men by a very debatable decision, generating almost endless negative publicity instead of the media focusing on the great tries that featured in that game, then something clearly isn’t right.
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