Mick Potter has a reputation as the sport’s Mr Mild Mannered, but the St Helens coach was so incensed about the referee’s performance during the defeat by Hull Kingston Rovers on Sunday that he has sent a dossier of grievances to the RFL.

Potter, who held back from criticising Ian Smith, the referee, at the after-match press conference, has suggested in correspondence with Stuart Cummings, the League’s match officials director, that high tackles and spoiling tactics at the play-the-ball had gone unpunished and contributed to St Helens’s 28-24 defeat at Craven Park, their second loss of the Engage Super League season.

“I thought my players performed well and defended as well as they possibly could,” Potter told the St Helens Star newspaper. “As for the performance of the referee, Daniel Anderson [his St Helens predecessor] had a few things to say about him [Smith] and I would agree with him.

“I have sent a dossier to the RFL setting out my concerns. There were tackles around the head, six-second play-the-balls, allowing players a second grab [after tackles were completed], players offside, players not square at marker ... and the referee was doing absolutely nothing about it. But he managed to penalise us three times in the last three minutes. It was pretty hard to take.”

Thierry Alibert, another of the League’s full-time referees, has been put in charge of St Helens’ home match on Friday night with Crusaders, for whom Gareth Thomas, the former Wales rugby union captain, will watch his new team for the first time. He is likely to make his debut against Catalans Dragons in Wrexham next Friday.

St Helens have Ade Gardner back on the wing after four matches out with a rib injury, but are without Paul Wellens at full back and Jonny Lomax, who were injured in the Hull KR match. Paul Clough makes his 100th appearance in the pack.

Wakefield Wildcats travel to Hull KR, six days after their 52-0 thrashing by Huddersfield Giants, their players having been forced to watch a rerun by John Kear, the coach. “It’s been a tough couple of days,” Jason Demetriou, the Wakefield captain, said. “We had a lot of individual meetings to go through what happened because it was such a big turnaround from how we had been playing previously.”

Hull can leapfrog Wigan Warriors, their opponents at the DW Stadium, and have Sean Long back after three matches out with a hamstring injury for the top-of-the-table encounter.