Coach Luke Robinson wasn’t happy with the match officials following Huddersfield Giants’ 26-0 home loss to Leeds Rhinos.
Robinson felt it was an improved performance from his men after their 48-2 drubbing at Wakefield Trinity five days earlier, but he was left “frustrated” with how the game was controlled – and angry at one incident involving Joe Greenwood and Leeds’ Brodie Croft.
“They have been playing red hot and they are one of the form teams in the competition,” Robinson said of Rhinos.
“I thought we got a response from last week and I don’t think the scoreline reflected the game. It wasn’t how the game panned out.
“I am really frustrated, I think there’s a bit of an issue within the ruck in our sport. Greeny gets up and we’ve got the ball, he stands on his feet and Brodie Croft pushes him over.
“Two touch judges and a ref and the cameras don’t see it. There’s a fourth official. It’s not the reason we lost the game, I don’t want to come across like I am making excuses, because I’m not.
“The weight of possession eventually took its toll against a really good Leeds side who are playing really good.
“It’s not the reason, but certain moments have bigger impacts within a game. That moment is massive. It really frustrates me anyway, the ruck area.
“People don’t roll away so when a quick play-the-ball happens, if someone lies flat behind the ruck, the hooker – not only for our team, for every team – has to step and move.
“You have to make an effort to roll away. It affects momentum then. I just felt like that was a massive turning point in the game because we were on the front foot at that point in the second half. I just don’t get how you can’t see that. It should have been a penalty our way, they got a penalty their way.”
Huddersfield Giants received just three penalties and one set-restart to Rhinos’ seven and four. Robinson admitted: “We’ve got to find a way of altering that and getting it swinging our way.
“We’ve got to start swinging the penalty count and six-agains in our favour, because we don’t get enough of them. We need to find a way of us being able to influence that so it comes our way.”
Looking at Giants’ performance, the coach insisted: “I thought our lads defended gallantly. At one point, we defended 34 tackles inside our 20 before they scored. I thought that was indicative of what the lads’ attitude was coming into the game after last week. Our effort was great, but I thought we were a bit blunt with attack, we weren’t very potent.”
