Sky Sports pundit lambasts gamesmanship as ‘boring’ and says Warrington star should ‘hang head’ for ‘milking’ challenge
Jon Wilkin - Alamy
Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin has launched a passionate argument against the growing trend of gamesmanship in Super League after two more high-profile incidents on Saturday: insisting Josh Drinkwater should ‘hang his head’ for ‘milking’ the challenge which saw Matty Lees sin-binned.
Players staying down to draw further punishment from match officials after collision is arguably the biggest talking point in the sport at present. It was in the headlines on Friday when Tyler Dupree appeared to do so during Wigan’s win over Hull KR: which led to Jai Whitbread being shown a yellow card.
Two more players were then sin-binned in the first half of Warrington’s game with St Helens on Saturday. Warrington’s Lachlan Fitzgibbon was sin-binned after St Helens’ Tee Ritson stayed down, before Lees was then sin-binned after making contact with the back of Drinkwater.
That incident in particular drew the ire of Wilkin, who said the half-back had ‘milked it’ before telling Drinkwater to ‘hang your head’.
Speaking about both incidents, Wilkin said: “I think Sam Burgess will be dismayed this (the Fitzgibbon challenge) is a yellow card. Lachlan Fitzgibbon makes mild contact with Tee Ritson, who’s fallen in to contact.
“Hang your head Josh Drinkwater. Matty Lees has every right to spray him as he walks off, because he’s milked it. He gives it to him, saying ‘are you going off’.
Wilkin then went on to slam the officiating as ‘unrecognisable’, adding: “I’m all for protecting head injuries but that’s nonsense, it’s trivial nonsense.
“There’s nothing entertaining about watching Matty Lees bump into the back of someone very gently and them laying on the floor for five minutes. There’s nothing entertaining about that.”
Wilkin then insisted that any discussion over that level of behaviour protecting players from head injuries makes no sense.
He said: “There’s a responsibly to look after players but those two yellows go nowhere near to fix that problem. Or fixing the impending litigation from past players. It also goes nowhere near way to helping players overcome sub-concussive injuries. So what are we talking about?
“That’s players abusing a loophole in the rules and it’s referees falsely applying rules to cover their own backs. That’s all it is. We can talk about welfare, that’s not protecting anyone. Come on. Just get on with it. It’s boring to watch. You know Josh Drinkwater is milking that.”
