saints levelled the game at cardiff of a forward pass. swings and roundabouts

it's getting ridiculous now,fair play to ganson though today,he chalked off 2 giants tries for forward passes which both looked marginal, but that wasn't a sky game though.

I'm a qualified ref, and I honestly cannot believe the shocking standard of superleague refs. Alibert and Ganson are the only refs that stand out to me as ones that can hack the top level. The lower tier refs arn't a heck of a lot better, but at least they see the obvious.



Childs, Silverwood, Thaler are absolutly shocking. It's understandable though, as a 6 year old could pass the reffing tests to qualify. 95% of the posters here could pass them.



I'm honestly wondering, if refs have been told not to give forward passes if they offer try scoring chances. The amount i've seen this year is unbearable.

A couple of forward passes ruled correctly in the Salford vs Warrington game, from both sides. The ref got in great positions to see them.

Wigans try did look a bit forward but it couldn't have been that far forward surely. I couldn't believe it when Melis try was given.

Good stuff



I do not think I have ever seen Michael Dobson pass the ball backwards. If the referees ever started calling forward passes HKR would have to rederegister him.



I have to agree with Saddened

If the refs don't call forward passes and don't give any penalties (which seems to be the in thing at the moment) what is the point in having them. We can start with the touch judges, they can pay to get in like the rest of us, at least we bother to watch the game.

The Wigan pass was so easy to spot as the ball was pass on the line and the player took the ball past the line. Quite what the TJ was looking at that point is a mystery to me, because at that point in time that was all he had to look for.

It's all down to bottle, in my view. A part-time official is in a stadium packed with fans of a team that is losing 10-0 and has a walk-in try, unless he makes an instant decision that the pass is forward. Hesitation is human, and as you can't go to the screen for it, once he hesitated, the moment is gone. Anything else would have made him trot backwards for a video ref decision.

Cant do that.....half of wigan's tries would be ruled out and they would be back to mid table mediocrity once again !! (like Leeds are under Mcdermott

)

other solution is to get robots to replace those incompitent wastes of spunk running the lines. Its very difficult for a referee to see a lot of forward passes especially as he is stood 10 metres in front of play and he relies on those tools on the sidelines. it beggars belief sometimes when the liners are right in line and have a much better view than speccies and they still dont see it.....bring in robots. If we had brought in robots years ago we probably would not now have James Childs as a referee !!

Anyone who claimed that Deacon didnt knock on because the ball hit him in the face has shown their ignorance as far as the rules of the game are concerned.



The RFL changed the rules when John Harison nutted the ball in the 90's against Sheffield Eagles for a try. Therein any contact with the head is a knock on.

You mean this bit of the laws?







Which would suggest it should be a penalty. Of course both this and the definition of a knock-on (which doesn't mention the head at all) require an active attempt to play at the ball. The ball simply hitting a player's head or hand is neither a penalty nor a knock on.

That's how I viewed it. Deacon clearly made no attempt to play at the ball and probably didn't even see it coming. That said, the call could have gone either way.



As for forward passes, I agree entirely it's beyond a joke. Leeds were getting pulled up for theirs the other week and allowed to get away with them this week and look at the result - 3 tries either directly or indirectly involving clear forward passes. We (Wigan) had a few let go last night, but then so did Saints. I don't blame the teams or players - it happens and if the officials aren't pulling them up you can push the limits - I blame the officials. Linesmen probably have the best view - why aren't they advising the ref or flagging??