{"id":453729,"date":"2026-03-02T14:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T14:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453729\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T14:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T14:54:16","slug":"wakefield-trinity-boss-asks-question-to-rfl-and-referees-after-being-left-confused-over-key-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453729\/","title":{"rendered":"Wakefield Trinity boss asks question to RFL and referees after being left \u2018confused\u2019 over key calls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Wakefield Trinity head coach Daryl Powell<\/a> has confirmed he will be asking questions to RFL Head of Referees Phil Bentham following his side\u2019s loss to Warrington Wolves.<\/p>\n

Trinity lost 27-16 to Warrington on Saturday evening<\/a> with Daryl Powell\u2019s side suffering a second loss in Super League, however, he was again left pondering how green cards are being used in 2026.<\/p>\n

After his side\u2019s shock round one defeat to Toulouse, for which he made no excuses and admitted to Trinity being simply outplayed, Powell raised a question over how the green card was being used<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A green card is administered if a player goes down and requires medical attention with the player then leaving the field for two minutes, rendering their side one player short. The law was introduced to stop players from feigning injury and to discourage time-wasting, however, Powell is now seeking clarification on the law.<\/p>\n

Confirming that hooker Tyson Smoothy had failed a HIA, Powell spoke in his post-match presser<\/a> and admitted:\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s one thing I don\u2019t understand and would seek clarification on because this has happened to us a couple of times now.<\/p>\n

\u201c(In round one) Cam Scott gets hit on the head and stays down and gets a green card. Today, Tyson gets hit on the head and ends up leaving the field for a HIA, which he fails later on but he gets hit, the game stops and there is no penalty given. Then there is a penalty given when George Williams stays down in the second half, so what are we doing?<\/p>\n

\u201cAre we doing that (green cards) or not? That would be my question to Phil (Bentham, head of referees) when I speak to him because I don\u2019t understand why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wakefield Trinity boss airs green card concerns<\/p>\n

England captain George Williams was caught high by Trinity captain Mike McMeeken in the second-half of Warrington\u2019s win over Wakefield with no penalty initially given. However, Williams stayed down with the referee eventually blowing time to allow him to receive medical attention, at which point a penalty was confirmed.<\/p>\n

Salford RFLC CEO Ryan Brierley was commentating for the BBC and effectively made the point that Daryl Powell was asking, with Brierley stating: \u201cIt\u2019s really hard because if George gets up and plays the ball then I don\u2019t think that penalty gets given.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warrington would then kick that penalty to make it 22-10 but Williams did not have leave the field with a green card, something that for Powell was inconsistent with previous instances this year.<\/p>\n

The Wakefield boss said: \u201cI think there have been numerous times this year, there was one in a Hull game the other week when there was a hip drop and a player had to leave the field. It was seen on video and it should have been a penalty but it wasn\u2019t given, so what are we doing and can you tell me please? That\u2019s what I\u2019ll be asking.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also felt it brought into question if players are now returning to the habit of staying down to earn penalties \u2013 the main issues that the green card was introduced to stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense really,\u201d Powell declared.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s different and all we\u2019re after is consistency and that will help because I\u2019m wondering are we now staying down again to get a decision or not? That\u2019s confused me tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where Hull KR rank among Super League\u2019s greats, referee controversy and Las Vegas predictions \u2013 Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wakefield Trinity head coach Daryl Powell has confirmed he will be asking questions to RFL Head of Referees…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-453729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}