'Guilty until found guiltier': Leeds Rhinos coach Rohan Smith on Rhyse Martin ban controversy

Martin will miss Friday’s play-off tie at Catalans Dragons - and next week’s semi-final if Rhinos win - after a one game ban was doubled following an unsuccessful appeal.

The RFL’s match review panel charged Martin with a grade A high tackle on Alex Mellor in Rhinos’ win over Castleford Tigers and a disciplinary hearing added a second game to his ban when they decided his appeal was ‘frivolous’.

Smith said: “Rhyse is gutted, clearly - he has only missed one game from an earlier suspension and two to go home earlier in the year for the funeral of his father.

“He has invested so much into this season, to have to miss this one is a tough one, but Rhyse is a great guy, he’s around the guys at training, helping out.

“It’s credit to him that he is all about the team and what he can do to help us prepare.”

Smith added: “I’ve known Rhyse a long time and only ever known him to play the game in the right spirit.

“He is a great man off the field and a great teammate. I do feel for him, but our focus is on who is playing and trying to keep his season alive.”

Smith believes how the match review panel and the judiciary operate will come under the spotlight after the season ends.

Of Martin’s tackle on Mellor, the coach said: “I think it’s an accident. I do think Rhyse was taking some care in the way he went about it. It was a falling player and a glancing touch, really.”

But he added: “To me, the more concerning part is the process around it all. You are essentially guilty until you are found guiltier, if you decide to appeal.

“We are still on online calls, with footage that doesn’t have the ability to go frame-by-frame, you can’t see it with real clarity, it’s a little vague at times.

“I’m not sure why we aren’t in person, face to face looking at the same screen - that would make the process a little clearer.”

Discussing the hearing, Smith said Rhinos provided a clip of another tackle, which they felt “had more force applied” but resulted in a caution.

The coach said Leeds also disputed a tackle made by James Roby earlier this season which was used by the RFL as part of their case.

He felt “there was a fair conversation”, but claimed: “The definition of frivolous seems different - how it has been used by the RFL - to the definition I have had from legal people.”

Mellor, who joined Tigers from Rhinos midway through this season, has voiced support for Martin.

In a message to his former teammate on social media, he said: “It’s not even a penalty never mind a ban! Feel for you mate.”

That was tweeted after the tribunal’s verdict was announced, but Smith said: “Over the years I know judiciaries don’t want to know about their mates saying ‘don’t suspend my mate’, but I appreciate Alex saying that.

“I was a glancing touch, there was no swinging arm, no intent. The players around the incident didn’t react.

“Ben Thaler would be among the most experienced referees in the game and he has a video ref in his ear too, if he needed it.

“They didn’t find a penalty, they didn’t find a yellow card and on Sunday at the Super League play-off launch it never got a mention by another coach or journalist.”