Leeds Rhinos receive James McDonnell boost as decision to overturn ban explained

McDonnell initially received a two-match penalty notice following his red card in last week's golden-point loss to St Helens.

The Ireland international was sent off in the closing stages of normal time for punching, described by the match review panel as 'one on one – contact to the head'.

Leeds challenged the sanction, which was based on evidence from the match officials, and won their appeal at an operational rules tribunal on Tuesday evening.

Judge Sarah Wright, who chaired the tribunal, said: “We directed ourselves in accordance with the appropriate burden and standard of proof, namely that the compliance manager bears the burden of proof and has to establish that the misconduct has occurred to the reasonable satisfaction of the tribunal bearing in mind the seriousness of the allegation.

"The standard of proof is greater than a mere balance of probability but less than proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

“We reviewed footage including a substantial amount of footage that had not been broadcast and footage which had not been seen by the match review ranel.

“The player together with Matt Cook (Leeds Rhinos general manager) took us through a detailed analysis of the footage. It showed beyond doubt that Jonny Lomax was injured and bleeding heavily before the incident involving James McDonnell.

“No punch can be seen on the footage and it was conceded by the RFL compliance manager on behalf of the match review panel that the footage was inconclusive.

"We were able to view the incident from a number of angles and did not see a punch thrown. We accept entirely that the touch judge was genuinely certain that at the time he saw a punch. However, he was not able to point out the punch on the footage.

"We cannot rule out the fact that he may have been genuinely mistaken and therefore cannot be satisfied to the appropriate standard that a punch was thrown and we allow the appeal.”

The decision comes as a boost to the Rhinos after seeing Aidan Sezer, Harry Newman and Morgan Gannon join Blake Austin, David Fusitu’a, Sam Lisone, James Bentley and Jack Sinfield on the sidelines last week.

As well as Saturday’s St James’ Park date with Castleford, McDonnell was due to miss next week’s trip to Wakefield Trinity before his reprieve.