Leeds Rhinos news: apology made to refs after defeat by Hull FC as coach promises 'it won't happen again'
Leeds Rhinos have said sorry to the referees after being penalised three times for dissent during last Sunday’s 22-14 defeat at Hull FC.
Speaking at his preview press conference today (Friday) ahead of Sunday’s home game against in-form Warrington Wolves, coach Brad Arthur admitted he and the players were “very embarrassed” by their behaviour and insisted: “I can assure you, it won’t happen again.”
Leeds failed to score in the second half after leading by two points at the interval. Arthur said: “That second 40 minutes was unlike us. I haven’t seen that in these guys, our attitude towards our behaviour. We have reached out to the refs - our boys were apologetic about how we carried ourselves.
“It is not something we are proud of; unfortunately we just had a bit of a brain snap for 40 minutes. I think it’s unfair we judge them on that 40 minutes because they are not that team and haven’t been for a good 18 months now. We’ve just got to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Expanding on their apology to the match officials, Arthur stated: “Our boys have worked really hard on their relationship with the referees and not being that team that’s in their face all the time and throwing their arms around. We sort of reverted back to that a bit for 40 minutes, under frustration. We just wanted to apologise and say we shouldn’t have treated the refs with that lack of respect. They were good, they took it on board.”
The referees’ department admitted a mistake was made last season when St Helens were awarded a try by the video official in their play-off win at Leeds. Arthur added: “They apologised to us, they were man enough to own up to a mistake they made last year. We made a mistake and we’ve got to move on from it.”