He's certainly got form didn't he do it twice last season ?

i've been in two minds about this, bentham does do that step to his left, which led me to think it was more of an accident than last years incident.



however i've just watched it back again now, houston was looking up at the ball but he clearly has a look forward towards bentham's location, even if phil hadn't stepped to the side, houston will still be making contact with him.

the rfl are very tough on any contact with the ref even if it is an accident... not surprised to see a ban

except when he completely cleaned the same ref out last year and they did nothing.

Not quite true. They charged him for it, grade D iirc which could have landed him with a 5 match ban.

But they actually appealed the charge last year and won. Which makes their decision not to appeal this one strange to me because, as I mentioned on the previous page, the collision last year looked far more intentional.

i think he was found no case to answer, which flabbergasted everyone.

I was thinking along the same lines.

Maybe he meant to just brush against him but as you say Bentham steps back into his path which makes the impact a lot greater.

Then again rugby players are adept at swerving around or side stepping players so I guess he could have avoided the impact



The 2 match ban is a bit odd, I guess they have ruled it as reckless play. Surely if it was deliberate it would be a season long ban or even "sine die"

they charged him



but appealed and got overturned

Accidental is my opinion.

On the basis of Bentham's little step to the left, Houston is looking up at the ball, and also that I can't believe in this day that any of the players are daft enough to run straight into a ref, knowing full well that a likely van is on the cards for even putting a hand on a ref. Mitch Allgood, was it? Got reported and banned when playing for Rovers for simply putting his hand of the refs shoulder.

It's totally deliberate, scumbag had a sneaky look ahead when he's about 8 metres away which you can see in the side on shot and is about 2-3sec into the YT vid. This is not shown on the close up replays as Houston is closer than that in any case.

It could have been even worse because if Bentham doesn't move to his right Houston would have run right over the top of him.

Has ample time to look, it's encumbent upon him to not make contact, he makes zero attempt to look where he is going knowing that the referee is in the vicinity.



Should have got the full 5 games given that players have being given 3 for a silly push to move them out the way and Carney I think got 3 games for putting his arm up when Child deliberately walked into him.

Total b0llox as you don't know whether it was or wasn't deliberate unless you are Chris Houston. Looking at the video over and over you can see Houston looks twice and each time he looked Bentham is crabbing to the right, so Houston in the line he is running would miss Bentham had he not stopped and then leaned in to the left. As Houston has looked he has clearly made attempts to see where he is going.

There also has to be some responsibility on behalf on Bentham and the officials, as Bentham being a professional and experienced ref should know that when a kick goes up a chase will ensue. Bentham has a responsibility to make sure he is out of the way for both his and the players safety. just because he is an official it doesn't make him infallible.

How can he get out of the way of people who are coming from behind him? Or does he turn round to look at them, and miss the catcher knocking on, being tackled in the air etc? He was exactly where he should be, in order to make that call. The responsibility is absolutely with the players as they are the only ones in a position to ensure his safety.