BY JOHN DAVIDSON
Huddersfield Giants coach Ian Watson branded the actions of two of his players as “dumb”, after they were handed two yellow cards in their 26-18 loss to Hull KR, and described himself as being “baffled” by one refereeing decision.
Jake Connor was sin-binned for a scuffle with Louis Senior at half-time and then in the second half Jack Ashworth was marched for 10 minutes for a high tackle on Jordan Abdull.
The Giants went ahead 6-0 early but were reeled in by the semi-final chasing Robins.
“They were dumb,” Watson said of behaviour of his two players to receive the yellow cards.
“We’ve done a few weeks like that in the last couple of weeks.
“You can’t touch anybody or push anyone in the face. You just can’t do it, the game’s completely different now.
“We put a bit too much pressure on ourselves. Our discipline with and without the ball cost us today.”
Watson was unhappy with the referee’s decision on the try scored by Hull KR’s Senior late in the second half.
“The Senior try is a clear obstruction, how do we not get that picked up?” he said.
“It’s a clear obstruction every day of the week. That’s frustrating.
“I’m baffled by it… Then the game to be decided on a penalty was not right for me.
“Overall I thought it was a good game but a few things didn’t go our way.”
Next season Super League will have a video referee at every game, unlike this year where only Sky matches have a video referee.
“I think the video referee will be massively important for the game,” Watson said.
“The referees will be aided by the cameras being at every game.”
The Huddersfield praised the resilience, determination and effort of his players despite the defeat.
