Sky Sports Pundits Criticize Red Card Decision in St Helens vs Castleford Match
Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin and colleague Jon Wells have criticized the decision to send off St Helens winger Tommy Makinson in their 60-4 victory over Castleford Tigers on Friday night.
Makinson, who had missed the previous week’s defeat against Hull KR due to chicken pox, was dismissed just 13 minutes into the match for a late hit on Castleford’s Tex Hoy. The incident occurred in the build-up to a try-saving tackle by Saints’ Konrad Hurrell.
After a video review, officials deemed Makinson’s hit as having no mitigating factors, leading to his red card. However, Wilkin and Wells believe this was an erroneous decision, arguing it should have been a yellow card at most.
“It’s just not a red card, is it!? It’s a yellow card, it’s just a yellow card,” Wilkin stated. “We’re on dangerous ground, that should just be a yellow card. Tex Hoy falls, Tommy Makinson maybe or maybe doesn’t touch him, we’ve watched it 10 times and I just think it’s too big a thing to make that red.”
Wells echoed Wilkin’s sentiment, saying, “You’ve got the attacking players losing height and for me, it was indirect contact with the head, that was my take on it. Chest first into head, yellow card would have been sufficient.”
Despite the controversial dismissal, St Helens went on to secure a comfortable victory, scoring 10 tries. The incident has sparked widespread criticism on social media, with Wilkin and Wells joining the majority in their belief that the officials made the wrong call.
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