Tony Smith backs referee's decision in Ben Westwood-Liam Sutcliffe incident
Saturday 8 April 2017 00:01, UK
Warrington's head coach Tony Smith felt that Ben Westwood was dealt with correctly after escaping a red card in their first Super League win of the season.
The Wolves forward was sin-binned when he could have seen red for a late challenge on Leeds' Liam Sutcliffe in the first minute of his side's 25-14 success at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
Sutcliffe was hit extremely hard and did not return to the field as Warrington, with Westwood influential, went on to win with two tries from Ryan Atkins and further scores from Tom Lineham and Kurt Gidley.
Smith said: "It was late but there was nothing in it in terms of anything else. It was warranted, the 10 minutes."
Smith added that there were some other incidents he was not happy with.
He said: "There might be a couple of other things, chicken wings and those sort of things, that crept in there but we will have a look at that later on."
Leeds boss Brian McDermott refused to get drawn in on the Westwood controversy.
McDermott said: "I haven't seen it enough. He certainly doesn't miss but I wouldn't comment on it."
Warrington's victory finally brought to an end their dismal start to the campaign after seven games without a victory.
But asked if the win was a weight off the shoulders, Smith said: "No, it doesn't feel that way. I'm pleased for the players. We had faith it was coming.
"There is not much difference between winning and losing. Leeds have played that standard this season and won games. It shows there is not a lot between us.
"It is a tough competition and if you are off in some areas it is hard to turn that around in terms of results. We know we are going to climb the ladder. We've not had the start we wanted but the way we finished will be the way we want it to be."
McDermott had no complaints about the result but was pleased with the Rhinos' character.
He said: "If you were to go through our performance in detail you'd find one or two things where we weren't as good as we should be.
"We didn't get much momentum with the ball in the first half but Warrington's kicking game was not far off a 10 out of 10 tonight. We wanted to be more inventive with the ball.
"I find it hard to be critical of my team, though. I thought they dug in and showed a lot of spirit."
