yes, the players indiscipline!if peacock hadn't gone after bateman you probably would have won,but lets blame the ref shall we instead?

unintentionally.
once he realised where the tackle was going he released him,by then momentum had taken him beyond horizontal, it was dangerous yes but not malicious and whitehead let him go as soon as he realised he'd messed up.after that nothing could stop jjb from turning over.

I thought there were some poor calls, and we did seem to be on the wrong end of a few of them, at inconvenient times. The turnover after Kearney clearly and obviously touched it was unacceptable, im not not sure that the Hall try wasn’t a huge mistake, if it wasn’t, then we should look at the rules again because JJB had nothing at all to do with that try being scored, Sinfield drop out being given as a knock on was wrong but these things happen. There were a few bits and bobs and Bentham seemed to lose a bit of control and start pinging things at random, he seemed to swing from letting things go to clamping down on things without warning. The spear tackle wasn’t malicious, but that isn’t really relevant. Whitehead has a duty of care and he lost control of that tackle. The fact JJB wasn’t injured was luck not judgement. We aren’t strict on spear tackle because it is nasty, it is banned because it is dangerous and that tackle was dangerous regardless of intent. I would hope Benthams bosses aren’t happy with that performance, some of those decisions weren’t the standard of the quality we should expect. But our indiscipline was more to blame.

We should have been able to win in spite of that though, but it was a really really good game and enjoyed it. A bit of controversy is part of the game isn’t it?

Jones-Buchanan was in front of the kicker and stayed within the ten. That he may or may not have had an influence on proceedings is unclear but do we really want to introduce even more subjective material in to the debate.

Stay onside at the kick or if you're in front stay outside the ten or wait for the kicker to run past you to play you onside.

Let's not reward poor (or potentially worse - cynical) play.

I think the only decision Bentham got wrong was the Sinfield 'knock on'. Other than that he was fine. If Leeds fans should blame anyone for their team not winning this game, they should blame Peacock for costing his team a drop goal, and for getting himself sin-binned towards the end of the game.

I have no problems with the ref in general last night. The knock on was the only one he hat wrong against us. I didn't think Scruton was high on Bailey. He want in for the big hit and they clashed heads. His arms were around the shoulders. At the time I thought the spear tackle didn't warrant a red and when I got back and watched the incident again I was happy with Benthams reasoning on it.

I have seen many fans slating Bailey down tonight though but I for one don't see what he did wrong? When Whitehead did the spear he ran in but every forward from any team would be expected to do that. Peacock and Delaney were also straight in but no one mentions them. Then he gets slated because Scrutin came off second best so obviously Bailey is a thug and did something wrong. Fans and officials need to get a grip sometimes because Bailey, like Morley did in Australia, gets an unfair rap because of his past underscores sins and the fact he can be a wind up merchant.

I saw one comment on another website last night saying "surely Leeds fans must see Bailey does them more harm than good after tonight". That left me baffled as to what they actually see when he is involved in a play.

But he got all the penalties against Bradford spot on....

Correct, regardless of whether he had an effect on play, he was offside and only a few metres away from Kearney when he muffed it. The call was right. I was explaining to people around me who looked bemused at the replays before the desision was made.

Whinos is a very apt description of the Leeds faithful.

Yes.

Because, in that situation, who was JJB within the ‘ten’ of? Kearney didn’t touch the ball so was he the designated player to be within the ten of? Or was it Whitehead (?) who made the tackle on Hall in the end? Neither of those players touched the ball so we are already in confusion of where what we are judging against. Also at what point are we judging this? JJB was closer to Kearney when the ball was kicked than he was when Kearney made his play at the ball (which he missed) so when did JJB need to be more than 10metres away from Kearney, or Whitehead whichever we end up judging it against?

JJB did wait for the kicker to go past him, and the kicker eventually did. This is another reason the current rules arent clear because at the point it was kicked JJB was ahead of the kicker, and the point Kearney played and missed at he was, at the point Hall regathered i would say it was pretty close and when Hall scored I think Moon was the closest player to him.

Im all for simplifying the rules, but in this case I think that subjective judgement would be simpler. If JJB involves himself in the play, even to the point of just challenging for the ball he is obviously offside, if he doesn’t, he isn’t.

No, as I said seemed to begin to ping players at random, especially around the ruck. Bradford players were getting away with some pretty obvious stuff, then being pinged for some stuff which left you wondering where on earth it had come from.

Bailey had a really really good game. Possibly our best forward last night.

My question was, at what point does Kearney become the player JJB needed to be 10 meters away from? Why is he the designated point and not any of the other players who were also not touching the ball and at what point did he need to be ten metres away from him? When he played and missed at the ball the first time? Or when he played and missed it the second time? Why was it Kearney and not whitehead (?) who was literally right behind him when he missed the ball a second time and going for it?

Watched the game last night and left Headingley feeling that I had watched a really good entertaining match.

Felt bit hard done to by the Ref but watched it this morning on Sky, Bentham had a good game just made a few mistakes like we all do.

The tackle on JJB was so fast and I felt at the ground it's just one of them things nothing seemed nasty about it.

The niggling thing during the match was Bradfords last try came about with Sammut pushing Danny as he played the ball. The same thing cost us a drop goal but cost Bradford nothing.

The second Leeds try that was disallowed was correct but harsh.

More games like that please ......

Jones-Buchanan was in front of the kicker and within ten metres of both those players at the point they were in a position to collect the ball. They clearly didn't but had either the Bradford players touched the ball Jones-Buchanan was within the ten and offside at that point as the kicker had not advanced beyond him to play him onside. The video referee (Ian Smith) didn't appear to think whether the ball was touched by a Bradford player at that point made a difference to the ruling - I have to defer to his knowledge of the laws of the game.



Sorry but this is plainly an inaccurate statement, IMO. Moon at no point prior to Hall planting the ball advanced beyond Jones-Buchanan.



I disagree. The rule is simple at present but what you propose appears to introduce more subjectivity. The rule is fine as it is. If you're in front of the kicker stay outside the ten metre zone between you and the ball unless the kicker advances ahead of your position or until an opposing player touches the ball - then you're onside.

I think that was the best refs performance this season

He used common sense when he had to,agreed he got the short drop out decision wrong,but also we dropped out to Leeds after Ryan Hall knocked the ball dead and not Kear

It's about time we scored at the death,although it was to draw

How many times have Leeds done that to us to win,and usually very controversial, so I'm very happy this morning

I agree with you rhinoms.

Was a really good game of rugby league and I am pleased that Bradford are a competitive outfit once again and playing good rugby too. For us it was a point lost as as player errors and the critical ref decisions going against us proved the difference.

It was a million miles from the best ref performance, not even close. We have had Thaler twice this season, lost both, and he has been absolutely excellent in both, by far the best ref. Don't give us sour grapes rubbish, losing points isn't an issue, consistency and fairness are, something Thaler can do and Bentham can't.

And he didn't only make one mistake against Leeds, he made double figures mistakes. He also made them against Bulls also.

Had we won that game my view on him would have been no different.

Me too but only because Ablett has been showing his limitations as a centre.

Im not sure you can argue the rule is simple, but that you don’t really understand it and will defer to Ian Smith. Doesn’t seem simple to me to be honest. And you seem to be saying that had either Bradford player touched the ball, at that point JJB was offside, but there were 11 other Bradford players who also didn’t touch the ball, so why is it judged in relation to Kearney and Whitehead and not the 11 other Bradford players on the pitch? He was certainly 10 metres away from the winger on the other side, he also didn’t touch the ball.

So you are saying that Hall, who was onside, picking up the ball from a Moon kick was the point at which JJB became offside? And JJB needed to be 10 metres away from his own man? I have never heard of an attacking player having to give his own player 10 metres.

Jeez it wasn't half as bad as you make out. He made a couple of mistakes but who doesn't? He got far more right than wrong.

At the end of the day it wasn't him that lost a league point for Leeds.

He missed a fairly obvious ball strip, invented a knock on, managed to miss a touch from Kearney that couldn’t really have been clearer, and I thought his reffing of the ruck became entirely random., im sure Bradford fans will remember stuff he got wrong that went Leeds way as well.

The game was a great game, it really was, and I would never say a referee was responsible for a result. I think it was a pretty fair result. But it was a good game in spite of Bentham, not because of him and we should and can expect a higher standard than what he delivered last night.

He had an influence in Leeds losing points, just has the players and the coach did. He did not just make a couple of mistakes, he made lots. It's so easy to forget when the bias kicks in having got the result you wanted. Main issue for me was no consistency, which is absolutely clear watching it.

How was Bentham the only person in the ground to believe that the Bulls should have another six late in the game, the one where the Bulls knocked on. Yes it was corrected by people shouting at him. But how did he come to the thought he had first? It was absolutely clear all around the ground no matter where you was.

Are you suggesting that a player has to stay down injured before a red card is justified? IMO that JJB got up is irrelevant. The tackle is either a spear tackle or not for a red card. However the tackler had used a dangerous technique which could have proved very serious despite leaving go before contact with the ground and in my view deserves a greater penalty that offside or sarcasm.