Leeds Rhinos forward James Bentley's reputation 'inaccurate' says Rohan Smith as Mikolaj OIedzki nears return

The second-rower is suspended for Friday’s game at Leigh Leopards in Betfred Super League round four, but Smith hopes prop Mikolaj Oledzki will be back in the squad following two games out with a shoulder injury.

Bentley was handed a one-match penalty notice after being charged by the RFL’s match review panel with grade B striking during last weekend’s win over Catalans Dragons. That was his sixth charge since being sent-off on his Rhinos debut in 2022.

Last Saturday’s incident began when Bentley was fouled by Catalans’ Tariq Sims and Leeds received the subsequent penalty, with referee Chris Kendall taking no further action. Speaking at his weekly preview press conference today (Tuesday), Smith said: “There’s been a few of these incidents through the opening part of the season where the retaliator has got himself in trouble.

“That may or may not have been factored into the equation, I am not too sure. James has got a bit of a reputation, but I think it has been inaccurately framed of late. He reacted a couple of times in that game, which obviously we need to work on; it is not okay to react, but also he got a clip round the jaw and he got pushed into a concrete wall.

“Those moments of brief reaction need to be attended to, no doubt, but in his general game play the other teams have tried to get under his skin, but he is not actually reacting in general play. James has changed how he is playing the game, he is actually refraining from getting into scuffles at times.”

Bentley has accepted the charge and Smith added: “We are okay with that verdict [the one-week suspension] and it is something James needs to learn from, but he has also shown good signs of constraint and focus for sure.”

Rhinos prop Justin Sangare was charged with grade B head contact after being sin-binned against Catalans, but avoided a penalty notice and is available for Friday. The match review panel didn’t charge any of the three Catalans players shown a yellow card and asked if he was surprised by that, Smith said: “I haven’t looked at the other charges.

“I got a message from Paul Cullen [of the review panel] to say that James had a grade B and Justin had a grade B as well. I was quite surprised by Justin’s charge. If that was a grade B, I am not sure what a grade A looks like.”

Sangare’s availability this week is good news for Rhinos with props Sam Lisone and James Donaldson still suspended following charges from round two. They could be boosted further by Oledzki’s return this week and Smith said: “We’ll see how he goes, but he has a chance to be back in the 21. He is 50-50 at this stage and if he gets through [a training session on Tuesday evening] he will be a bit better than 50-50.”