Well played tonight. Your team did really well, the fast speed at the play of the ball kept us on the back foot all night and without doubt you were the better team.
So as to not derail a different thread, as suggested by another poster I have begun a new one about the Nick Scruton challenge on Gareth O'Brien. Obviously, if it hadn't been for the fact that Rangi Chase wasn't playing tonight due to a suspension for his shoulder making contact with Zak Hardaker's head (which I agree with), this issue of head-shots maybe wouldn't be so high in my mind. However, what do you think about the tackle?
And as a direct question to Bully Boxer, which part of O'Brien's body do you see in contact with Scruton's shoulder?

It looked fine to me.

Can we talk about the forward pass now?

Just watched it again and it was fine. Ref even asked video referee for his opinion and he said it was all legal. No contact to the head was made by Scruton and it was clearly not deliberate!

Is it just me that sees a little square box where this supposed image is?

The replay is clear to me, contact is shoulder to shoulder the force of which rocks O'Briens head onto the shoulder of Scruton. That is entirely different to a shoulder charge making direct contact with the head.

No I see a little square box too.

Which part of O'Brien's body do you suggest Scruton's shoulder is in contact with?

No, it's not just you.

I agree with your opinion of the tackle. A still image doesn't tell the whole story, and I think this is a reason it isn't accepted at a hearing.

What about the Gilmour head butt on 49 mins.. Six month ban for sure I reckon.

Apologies, I can see the image fine.

It looks like he in contact with a little box to me.

It's a head clash is it not? However, if the RFL are going to be consistent it is contact with the head whilst making the tackle, and I don't see why it should make any difference whether it is his arm/shoulder/head.

What's needed are the frames before and the frames after, not a single image that doesn't tell the whole story. These are what would be looked at by the match review/disciplinary panel.

Being from nottingham maybe you should support rugby union. Clearly league is too rough for you. Scrutons tackle was a tad late but he had already committed to the tackle before your lad passed the ball, and from the numerous replays on the bog screen it looked perfectly fine with it being just a big hit.

Unfortunately in Nottingham ice-hockey is the game, which is even more boring than union (just)!
I love the physicality of RL, but it is for this reason that contact with the head needs to be seen as a line in the sand. Over the first few weekends we have seen a numbers of incidents and my fear is that sooner or later someone is going to be seriously damaged and suffer a brain injury if it is not addressed.
Having played at 6 and been the main kicker, I suffered a fair few late head shots that eventually convinced me the game wasn't worth it.

Had there been contact with the head do you not think Ganson of all refs would have picked up on that? He would have been itching to dish out a red just as he was itching to dish his yellows out tonight.

The video referee looked again at the tackle and said there was nothing wrong with it. So that is two main officials who have said it was legitimate one of which had a number of camera angles and could slow it down frame by frame. It is only the cas fans who think scruton has a case to answer for?

It was just a big shot and the lad was unlucky to come off worse for wear from it but he came back on in the second half?

I did notice however when your lad went down there was concern from our fans for him and we applauded him when he got back to his feet and in the next 10-15 mins one of your players pushed blythe i think it was into whitehead causing him to boot him in the head causing whitehead to go down which was followed by a load of cheers from your fans, and then the incident with the smoke can..

I see club tinted glasses are in full use on here!

Is it a shoulder charge? -yes
Is there any contact with the head? -yes
Is it mis-timed? - yes
Is it reckless as to whether injury may occur? - yes
Is there any malice? - no
Has the RFL set a precedent this season for such "tackles"? - yes
Do I think the incident will be cited and any ban be administered? - no
Are fans from any team capable of being open, honest and even handed in this or any debate on rlfans forums - unlikely!

I am not sure how it can be compared to Chase's last week tbh. Chase went in with the elbow. As it appears he likes to quite often.

It was nothing like Chase's 'tackle'. Chase made direct contact with Hardaker's head and raised his forearm in the process.

So the video ref has club tinted glasses on as well then!!

I don't know, has the video ref posted on here?

IMO it would have been a fair tackle had O'Brien had the ball, which is the main difference with Chase. However it was still an illegal tackle as O'Brien had passed the ball & Scruton had time to relax the intensity of his tackle but not prevent the impact. I have effected that tackle many times & had it dished out to me. You don't get many chances in a match to line up a player like that & Scruton couldn't resist the opportunity that had just past (or passed). It was not a sending off offence, but would have been 10 minutes if ruled late, so it will be interesting to see what the outcome is if he is referred belatedly.

Meh, looked OK to me. The one thing I did find distasteful was one of the Bulls players holding aloft an imaginary card trying to influence Ganson into sin-binning a Cas player, which he was going to do anyway. No need for it - it isn't "soccer".

Maybe we should play with them yellow tassles stuck to players shorts that way there is no risk of death caused by shoulder in our game!

I personally thought both the hit/push on blythe and the off the ball hit by whitehead were 2 worse incidents as at least o'brien was probably expecting to be tackled!

It was slightly late and nick hit shoulder to shoulder, it was the whiplash from o'briens neck that caused him to go off, he is also on loan from wire so cas had to make sure he was ok, it was nothing like chase or busquets who hit him a good 5 seconds after he had passed the ball whereas as soon as o'brien passed he was hit nothing a prop can do about that no way can a 16 stone guy pull out of the tackle

Didn't see this yesterday as I was out a Giants match, but having read about this "dreadful tackle" I watched the Sky replay this morning with some interest. Scruton's tackle was a little late so a penalty, no more than that. It has been blown out of proportion because Phil Clark immediatly compared it to the bad one by the Catalans prop the previous week. It was nothing like it.

Having watched it O'brien took one step between passing and the hit, not three or four. Because of the way his body was turned Scruton may not even have seen the pass. Not the best tackle, but no malice imo.