Salford coach Ian Watson admits that last week was probably not the best one he has experienced in recent years.
On Tuesday, the RFL Disciplinary Committee controversially suspended Salford winger Justin Carney for two matches for making contact with referee James Child in the Red Devils’ recent clash with Huddersfield Giants, after the referee had appeared to walk up close to Carney, who raised his forearm, apparently to prevent a collision.
Then, on Friday evening, the Red Devils were robbed of a draw at Leeds Rhinos by a late Liam Sutcliffe try that clearly included a forward pass by Stevie Ward in the buildup.
The final scoreline was 20-14 and Watson made it clear at the subsequent press conference that he was amazed that the match officials hadn’t seen the forward pass. “We felt there should have been some common sense applied in the case of Justin Carney,” Watson told League Express.
“It’s a normal human response that if someone comes into your personal space you will raise your arm to protect yourself. “They are saying it was a deliberate move, but he didn’t move his hips.”
Despite their misgivings, however, the Red Devils didn’t appeal the decision. “The one thing we wanted to do was to focus on Leeds. If we had appealed we would have had to travel to Leeds again, eating into our preparation time for the Leeds game.
“We didn’t see a way around it without dragging it out. It’s disappointing because we are the only club to employ a former referee (Richard Silverwood). He works really well with the boys in training and the respect our players have for referees is tremendous. The boys now have a great insight into the way referees work.
“It was obviously disappointing to lose the game at Headingley in the manner we did, but we’re looking ahead now to playing Warrington on Saturday.
“We hope the fans will get behind us and we really appreciate their support.”
Watson is uncertain whether new signing Todd Carney will make his debut against the Wolves, but it appears unlikely.
“We’ll assess Todd in training. He is not up to speed with all our calls yet and we need to know he’s fully fit and ready to play. But we don’t need to rush him, given the way that Robert Lui and Michael Dobson are playing. We have great competition for places and I’m sure the spectators will see a great game on Saturday.”