McDermott say RL can’t tell difference between “thugs and bravehearts”

He was, admittedly, pleased with the way the independent disciplinary panel handled his player Jamie Peacock’s case after he was charged with punching in the game against Leigh Centurions.

The ex-England captain was fined £300 for fighting with Matt Sarsfield in an incident which saw both sin-binned.

But the Leeds prop argued extreme provocation - the Leigh player hit him high, flopped and then forced his head into Peacock’s while on the ground - while his unblemished record also stood him in good light and he escaped without a ban so is free to play Huddersfield Giants tomorrow night.

It is remarkable that a 36-year-old forward has never been suspended in his career and McDermott admitted: “That had a massive bearing on last night; you can’t fail to recognise that.

“(But) there is a sense of frustration of why he was even called up.

“Our game has never really made a distinction between the thug and a braveheart.

“It almost seems to be making too strong a point on the people who retaliate and not enough about the people who are the actual instigators.

“Leigh had a strategy to win the game. They felt they couldn’t deal with JP’s open and honest game where he just runs as hard as he can and keeps as fit as he can so that he can longer than anybody else.

“Leigh concede they can’t do that so what they do is wait until he is on the floor and cheap shot him and head butt and try to get him to retaliate and get sent off.

“While ever those thugs aren’t being made accountable, you will always give those thugs the motivation to do it.”

Strangely, the match review panel opted against making a charge of any kind against Sarsfield.

“It’s unbelievably frustrating,” added McDermott, who will start Ben Jones-Bishop at full-back with Zak Hardaker serving the first of his five-game ban.

“It was a head-scratching moment when they said the Leigh player wasn’t acting against the spirit of the game.”