Leeds Rhinos' Rohan Smith explains selection, reveals message after knock-on decision in loss to St Helens

Teenage full-back Alfied Edgell was called into the 17 on the bench for the third Betfred Super League appearance of his career and second this season. Leon Ruan, a substitute in the previous three games, dropped out and fellow forward James Donaldson was 18th man for the first match since he completed a suspension.

Edgell wasn’t used until five minutes from the end, when James Bentley had to leave the field for a head injury assessment. Smith said: “The way the game is now, with sin-bins and red cards and all that sort of stuff, [it was about] having some coverage.

“Rhyse [Martin] playing centre took away our regular back coverage, where he can go to centre and we can shuffle around. With Rhyse not being able to do that, I thought it was important to cover our backs and not have to have back-rowers playing centre should something eventuate.”

Saints took the lead midway through the second half with a try following a scrum after Leeds winger Luis Roberts was ruled to have knocked on. On big screen replays it appeared the ball had been stolen, which should have meant a penalty to put Leeds in an attacking position, but – asked about it in his post-match press conference – the coach didn’t criticise referee Jack Smith.

He said: “I didn’t see the replay, I just judged by the reaction of people who saw the replay. Over the course of the game there’s no referee that’s ever got them all 100 per cent [correct] when the ball squirts out. Those ones are 50-50 or 60-40 or 40-60. ‘Carry it tighter’ is my message.”

Lachie Miller sent the restart from that try out on the full to concede a penalty and Saints scored again in the resulting set. The Rhinos full-back also put a restart dead in the previous week’s win at Leigh Leopards and Smith reflected: “It’s the risk you take sometimes with standing the ball up and looking to create something with the kick off. There was a delay in him being able to take that kick-off, which delayed his rhythm perhaps, but he will put the practice in and rectify that.”

It was not clear after the game if Bentley had passed his head injury assessment. A failed concussion test would automatically rule him out of next Friday’s rematch with Saints in the Challenge Cup sixth round.