[urlhttp://www.castigers.com/article.php?id=2350[/url


I thought that it was an odd one this!! It looked as if Ablett had hold of Owens head to irritate Owen, holding it, pushing it, shoving it etc. The touch judge walked on onto the pitch, flag raised etc, and then Owen started doing the front crawl at Ablett.

For how long is a player supposed to take sh*t from another player before a reaction is inevitable?

After talking with his touch judges the ref then carded Owen, followed by a warning to Ablett....and then gave the penalty to Cas.

Surely, the ref should have dealt with Ablett first as that was the first incident that the touch judge was walking onto the pitch for, ultimately he had caused the whole incident to start. He should then have talked to Owen and warned him about taking things into his own hands. Both should have got 10 mins in the cooler, with the penalty going to Leeds due to Owen's reaction being the worst of the two offences.

Did anyone else get a closer look at how it all started?

That as far as i saw it as well. Holding down in the tackle plus a little bit of niggle. Owen gets up and reacts - touch judge walks on - ref does nothing - Owen throws a couple of puches and it all kicks off.

What i could not belive was how if Owen gets binned for a retaliation did we get the penalty. The lesser of the offences was by the Leeds player Ablett. Owens punch over rules the initial penalty.

Therefore the Leeds should have the penalty. Owen correctly put in the bin - prehaps Ablett as well (although i could not see the extent of his "niggle on the floor"icon_wink.gif.

To be honest - good on Owen for not taking any rubbish. Away at Leeds you have to stand your ground and not get intimidated.

The ref however although not having a bad game was technically wrong on a number of things.

I think when Williams was pulled into touch the momentum of the tackle clearly had not stopped and so dragging into touch was not really correct. However thats a 50:50 call at the best of times. However what he allowed next was totally incorrect.

Cas penalty - within ten yards of the try line - the defensive line is the try line end of. Cas then kick the ball back into touch say 15 meters from the try line. in the rules the defensive line is still the try line and the defenders are not allowed to approach until the cas player is within ten yards of the line passing the . Thus giving in essense the attacker a 5 meter run. However the ref actually allowed the defensive line to approach and set their initial position 5 yards from the try line - therefore negating any benefit of taking the bal back and extra five yards.

It is so annoying that the referees are pulling teams for things like a voluntary tackle when they collect a ball on the floor but then missing quite significant rules which make a significant impact to the game.

In general I thought Owen had a reasonably good game, however he does often appear as if he is frustrated with other Cas players not pulling their weight and can then lose his own focus on the game.

Thought the referee was bang on actually - he had stopped the game and the pointless flag carrier was coming on to report that Ablett gave away the penner.

Owen then gets himself binned while the game is effectively "time off" for being a petulant tit - could have been red carded actually easily.
Didn't affect the game in any way, probably galvanised us a little bit.

One of Owen's best games for ages - he was getting a bit wound up with some of his team mates - he was giving Snitch a right ear bending for the mess ups in the right centre channel, was pulled away - in fairness Snitch was poor, but has only just come in to the side.

But surely if Owens offence was worth a yellow, that would have overridden Albletts and the penalty should have gone to Leeds, shouldn't it?

I to thought he had a good game at the back. He seemed to want to put the effort in and showed some enthuiasm (unlike a few at time during yesterdays game).

Its not been the case through the season but when he gets motivated he seems to play well.

Like above - fair play to him for throwing a couple of punches - before people say he should not be fighting - i do agree - but better to show some commitment and spirit than just sit there and take it.

At certain stages in the game one of the major differences between the two teams was aggresion and commitment. I recall a situation where Griffin had a right go at a couple of his team mates when the were on their own line for being in the wrong place. The score was 40 -6 - says it all really.

Then i saw Bailey run about 40 yards from one side of the pitch to the other to make a tackle on the defensive line . Not because we had broken through but simly because he realised he was out of position and was going to let the team down.

If all our players played with that level of commitment we would be a dam sight better off.

I'd agree with most of your post but I think with regard the penalty the ref was correct. If Cas kick the ball into touch then the penalty is where the ball crosses the touch line, and so the defensive line 10m from that point. If Cas had walked back and simply taken the tap further back then the penalty remains where it was given. That's my understanding of it anyway.

i was just pleased owen stood up for himself instead of letting himself get bullied by a player from a bigger club all the time

plus we played better with 12 men lol

No. The first offence was by Carl Ablett therefore the penalty remains in our favor