The rule is that play should stop when the doctor is required to attend to a player on the field. In the heat of the game, did the ref realise the doctor was on? When play stopped for the scrum, he would have been able to see the doctor was present and the game was stopped.

Not sure about that mate.
So what you are saying is that a player in knocked out or bleeding profusely the ref has to wait for a doctor to stop play?

Don't think that is correct.

Gutted for the lad. Started to hit form too. Defensively, over the past few games I've seen, he was as good as anyone in the comp.

I agree and his last three games have been his best for the club.

I spoke to him few days before our play off semi with Wigan and he said this is why he can't to saints to play in the big games.

Gutted for him. He's top lad.

No, I was unclear in my quick response!! The ref can stop play for an injury at any stage, but mostly play does go on. It is mandatory to stop when the doctor is on the field as a doctor only comes onto the field.

I watched the game back on TV this morning (having been at the game) and it was a bad one. Personally, I thought the game should have been stopped. Eddie and Stevo were ranting about it being normal to play on - and that is not the case when the doc is on.

Depends on whether it's his fending arm. If it is he may lose the weapon altogether. Given that Shenton is our attacking centre this would be catastrophic.

Which arm was it ? as a right centre I would suggest he is possibly left handed and fends more often with his left.

Think it was the left he did.

Just watched in again in slo-mo and it looks like sia hit him really hard at the back of his elbow and it either had to break or pop out. It was very painful just watching it so can't imagine how it was for for shents.

Hopefully he can recover fully and relatively quickly from this.

The right centre tends to be the more defensive centre because they will often see more work on that side of the field due to an attacking side's propensity to pass to that side. That's a generalisation but it is based on a truth. I'm not saying he's here for only that just highlighting that there's usually a higher workload to go with the position as well.

Shenton is a strong defensive player. But let's not forget that he was brought in to replace Gidley, our previous attacking centre.

Yes it was his left.

Best wishes for a speedy (and complete) recovery. Nasty injury.

Not sure about whether to stop the game or not. RL generally seeks to play on when someone's down - we effectively make the ref the arbiter of how serious an injury may be when they are obviously not qualified and quite often a distance from the injured player. Is this an area where the video ref could be helpful?

Gidley and Lyon were surely more attacking centres, because they got the ball coming their way from the left-handed Long, who generally set up plays to the right. Obviously, they were great centres anyway, but I think that Long's influence was very important to them.

I think in terms of overall skills Gidley and Lyon were better centres. Both could not just score tries but create them, too. Shenton seems like less of a winger's centre, but he does weigh in with a good number of tries. I mean, if we had plenty of money, space under the cap and a big talent pool to choose from Shenton possibly wouldn't have been at the club. But it's not like we've got ourselves a bad player. Yes, he struggled to find his feet during the first half of the season (this wasn't helped by having a very young and inexperienced half-back combination). But toward the back end he seems to have bedded down nicely. Next season I expect much bigger things and I reckon the kid will deliver (provided his injury isn't too serious).