Leeds Rhinos head coach Rohan Smith today admitted Morgan Knowles’ successful appeal came as no surprise after the St Helens forward was controversially freed to play in Saturday’s Super League Grand Final. The 25-year-old England forward lost his initial appeal against a two-match ban for “dangerous contact” following an incident with Salford's Chris Atkin in last Saturday’s play-off semi-final victory, after which he was sin-binned by referee Chris Kendall.
But Saints launched a second appeal on Wednesday which proved successful, provoking an angry response by many Leeds supporters and disbelief in some quarters. The defending champions claimed the original conclusion by a Rugby Football League tribunal was “unreasonable” based on the evidence presented.
Asked whether he was surprised about Knowles’ successful appeal, Smith said diplomatically: “No, nothing would surprise as far as that process goes. We planned as if Knowles was going to play and I didn’t really have a major reaction to it. I thought there was every chance the decision could go either way, so it’s probably good for the game and good for the World Cup.
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“I’m not on the inside of the hearing and what the case actually was. I’ve seen the tackle and that’s it – I think each hearing is an individual thing and, as was found from Tuesday to Wednesday, a different group of people can find a different answer to the same tackle. I’m looking forward to the game. Everyone saw it [Knowles’ challenge] but I’d rather not make too much comment about the whole process.”
Saints boss Kristian Woolf revealed the decision to appeal Knowles was a collective one. He said of his loose forward’s availability: “It’s a big boost, obviously, as he’s been a really important play for us all year.
“I think he’s one of the best players in the competition and one of the best players in his position in the world, so it’s a big boost for us and one we’re very happy with. It was a group decision [to appeal] because when Morgan was first charged, I commented afterwards that I’d be surprised if that was a suspension.
“I stand by that – I didn’t think it was a dangerous situation at all. Obviously you have got every right to defend yourself and that’s what we did in the first appeal. Out of that first appeal, there were a couple of points in closing that were quite contradictory.
“That was obviously what we based our second appeal on and it was a decision we were all comfortable with – and quite confident in too. We’ve had plenty of charges and suspensions this year and we certainly haven’t fought every one. We’ve done it when we thought we had a really good chance or some grounds to defend ourselves with. That was certainly the case with Morgan.”
Asked about the disciplinary process, Woolf said: “I think it’s a process that has to be there. You’ve got a right to defend yourself in any walk of life and certainly if you feel like things aren’t exactly right then you’ve got the right to appeal.
“The lateness of it can’t be helped – Monday is when you get your charges and Tuesday is when you appeal. When there is a second appeal, it has to happen the next day, obviously. That’s what happened. I don’t necessarily agree with every decision that gets made and it’s part of the process that sometimes there is some controversy.
“But I think it’s a fair process and has been handled well. Morgan is obviously really happy that he can play.”
Ash Handley has been named in the Rhinos’ squad after injury and Smith is hopeful the winger will feature, saying: “He’s probably 50-50 at this stage.” Leeds are missing four key players in Harry Newman, Morgan Gannon, Aidan Sezer and David Fusitu’a.
Yet Smith said: “It’s disappointing for those guys to not be available for selection, particularly Aidan in the manner that he has missed out. He’s really disappointed, but all the way through it’s been about who is available rather than who isn’t. Nothing much has changed there, but we acknowledge the efforts that everyone has made to give us this opportunity.”
Jack Sinfield is highly unlikely to play in the absence of Sezer, with Smith saying: “It won’t be Jack at this stage, unless something happens between now and then He turned 18 yesterday, so maybe he’s a man now.”
Will Hopoate is set to feature for Saints after injury and Woolf said: “He’s got a really good chance of playing. We expect him to play at this stage.”
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