SAINTS coach Kristian Woolf has expressed his disappointment that the tackle that led to James Bentley being ruled out for an indefinite period with spinal ligament damage has gone unpunished.

Bentley left the field and is now seeing specialists to ascertain the full extent of the injury – and is fearful of it being an extended period on the sidelines for the dogged second rower.

Although Catalans heavyweight prop Sam Kasiano was sin-binned for the tackle no further action has been taken following the incident.

Woolf said: “It is not a real good one, James has got some ligament damage around his spine as a result of a crusher tackle.

“It is really disappointing that you have a tackle that is seen as a sin-bin on the field, resulting in an indefinite sort of injury in which we don’t quite know what the time frame is going to be there, yet the match review committee find that there is no charge to be laid there.

“I don’t think it was intentional from Sam Kasiano at all – accidents happen in our game and I am not pointing fingers there at all.

“But I am disappointed with the match review committee because I don’t think they have protected our player.

“There were enough pictures and different camera angles shown in the game, that it was obvious a bad position that he has been put in and a dangerous crusher tackle.”

The match review panel in deemed there was no charge for the incident, stating: “Attacking player (Bentley) tucks his head and is part of the actions of the tackle in pulling the defending player (Kasiano) onto him.”