Well, we all now know that first impressions were right, Addy did not knock the ball forwards. Lulia almost at the try line unopposed, WHY did Blunderwood not just let him touch down, and ask the video ref to check?

You can say what you like, but that decision was when the Bulls had grabbed the ascendancy, and would have made the score 22-30 with us on the front foot and loads of time left.

It is these sort of unforgiveable blunders that s me right off. There was absolutely NOTHING to be lost by leaving it to the VR, and common sense (and what hapens in every other game) easily dictates "let the play finish, and let's just get the VR to check it". Yet Silverwood, an experienced ref, notches up another major mistake by for some inexplicable reason to go with his instinct on what was, even if you were a Leeds fanatic, a highly marginal call to say the least.

You're not allowed to complain about the refs it's sour grapes and somewhere a child cries because of it. Plus tigertot will be copy and pasting from last weeks threads - again!

I was more than happy with his performance and was really pleased to see him give the only penalty for offside in the whole match at 30 - 16 allowing Lids to kill the tie off. In 80 minutes of rl I truly believe only one person was ever offside at the play the ball. Seeing him only decide to talk to bailey for trying to take Evans' head off after e watched a replay of the try on the big screen. It therefore couldn't have been an 8 point try because the ref didn't see it on account of the fact he wasn't watching the game.

Evans wasnt diving at the time to put the ball down, therefore not yet in act of scoring, nor was it after the ball had been put down so couldnt have been an 8 pt try, plus it was leulai not bailey, if he had of given pen for high shot then couldnt have given try, try was the greater advantage to bradford, did you want him to disallow try for high shot, leeds organise their defensive line, bradford go for the try and dont get it??

But leulai was last man so he could have gone in bin for professional foul.

I'm struggling to make sense of this. It was a knock on, why let the game continue? If he had, fair enough, I'd not be unhappy either way, but my initial impression was well done ref for spotting it. It wasn't a mistake. What would s me off as a Bulls fan was 7 missed tackles in the first 8 minutes, & numerous others throughout the game.

Sometimes you can be funny, sometimes so clueless it's embarrassing. As a ref has pointed out Silverwood got in bang on with the Evans try. Also his first comment after awarding the try was to ask the VR to chack the high shots on Evans. From what I remember Silverwood missed on forward pass, apart from that, an excellent game. Probably he made 5% of the errors the Bulls made despite having to make a 100 times more decisions.

I thought the Addy 'knock on' was probably 50/50 whether it went forwards or backwards it is pretty hard to tell on the replay. Is it just me that is bloody confused about when a tackler comes in to make a tackle and his hand hits the ball? I've seen it given both ways though generally it seems to go against the defender. It's not a rule I particularly like and I think good defence should be rewarded rather than penalised.

The Lulia PTB knock on was another decision that we've seen go both ways and once they scored off that set it really was all over as a contest.
Generally I thought Silverwood got most of the decisions spot on but perhaps a couple of the 50/50's just didn't seem to go our way. For us to beat the top teams I think we probably need to be on the other end of that.

Thought silverwood had a decent game overall.

Considering the amount of mistakes our players made then surely silverwood can get away with making a couple of small ones. I'm grateful for him after watching Roby, hicks and child!

Wasn't It Purtell who picked the ball up and scored? Reason Silverwood couldn't go to the screen is because he waved back to 6 so Leeds had a free play then we intercepted and scored. Presume once he's waved back to 6 he can't go to the screen. Be very unfair on Leeds to say they had a free play, then say they didn't and award Bradford a try after Leeds threw the ball about thinking they had a free play.

Silverwood had a decent enough game, although we desperately need to 2 referees. As tigertot said, our powderpuff defence is what we should complain about.

Although one decision wound me up last night (it happens with all refs though) Bradford ware awarded a pen for Leeds interference mid way through second half, score was 30-16. From the first two tackle Bradford won the collision yet he Leeds players would not let the player up and had the most blatant interference of the night. Much worse than what he penalised the set before. Then we knocked on then Silverwood penalises us for the softest of penalties for interference which I still can't work out. It's these inconsistencies that annoy fans. We desperately need 2 refs for the rucks.

Not a fan of the free play boll@cks.

It was a knock-on...

Stupid ruling anyway - at the end of the day whether going for the man or the ball if you knock on you knock simple !!!

Ref this ref that doesnt really matter to be honest - we would not of Won that game last night, Whether Purtells try was given or if in fact JJB knocked the ball from Lulias hands,

We were just not good enough on the night as we havent been for the last 3 games - our defence has had more holes than a sieve !!

I have watched it carefully and it seems clear to me it wasn't. But whether it was, or wasn't my issue is why did the ref not allow the try to be scored and ask the VR to just check?

Anyone who claims it was a clear knock on is, with respect, either trolling, defective eyesight, or doesn't understand the phrase.

I would agree that overall we certainly didn't deserve to win the game, we were in many ways taught a lesson. I disagree that we couldn't have won the game. If we had got 3 tries on the bounce and got to 22-30, anything could have happened, and I think any watcher of SL has to agree with that, if we had got back to 22-30 with plenty of time to go, then you simply can't say we wouldn't have won.

I've watched a few times and it's a definite knock-on. Even if you ignore that and it did go backwards the fact is Silverwood waved back to 6 so the Leeds players gambled as they knew whatever happened they'd get the ball back. You couldn't go to the video ref after telling the leeds players they had a free play, so your point is void either way .


I'll also add your clutching at straws with this, as always it seems every single Rhinos victory recorded is due to the referee, and if one call had gone the other way the other team of course could or should have won it.

LOL - TBH even if we got on the front foot and had them on the ropes we still would of ran out of steam, a fair few teams at the moment a class above the rest and unfortunately Leeds are one of them,

If we could of avoided the first 12 points then maybe we may of had a chance, but judging by how we played at Wire i wasnt expecting anything more than a comfortable win for Leeds,

BUT not overlly bothered with the last 3 results as long as i said we can beat the teams lower than us we will have a good shot at the play-offs and hopefull can build up a good run of form going into them

This thread is a little embarrassing. On the whole the referee performance was okay, he certainly made less mistakes than the Bradford players. Poor defense lost us this game, not the referee.

Maybe you could have a look at this, then.

There are 4 screen shots. The main picture is a composite of the moment Addy's hand hits the ball on the left half of the image (A) and the moment the ball hits the ground, on the right side of the image (C).

It's very easy to see that the images line up, as there are lines and markings on the pitch.

You can in particular see that the ball is not forward of Addy's right foot.



I have also overlaid smaller images taken from the side view, at the same moments.

B shows that the ball is in fact not level with Addy's foot, but forward of Addy. This gives about another 2 or 3 feet of "room". It means the ball at image "A" is in fact 2 or 3 feet nearer the camera than Addy's right foot.

I would be interested to see any physical evidence you can show to support your conviction that it WAS forward.


At least I'm confident that you're not being serious there. Lulia was away by a mile and you know it.


Mate, I am doing no such thing whatsoever. I am simply discussing one single bad decision by the ref, and that was not to go to the VR for this call. There is no excuse for it. It should be possible to sensibly discuss physical evidence of one incident without people getting on their high horses about wider points and hyperbolic claims. Nobody is saying Leeds weren't the better side on the day nor that the Bulls "would have won" nor that their victory is "due to the ref". It is only stating the obvious to say that if the try had been scored, then from then it would have been a different game. Eight points isn't much in SL 2013.

Unfortunately it's your post that's embarrassing. I'd agree with your comment about the ref's general performance, and the mistakes, and the defence. Nobody says the referee lost us the game. Why refute a claim nobody has made?

Fair enough, from what I saw it looked forward, without having the time or inclination to go look into it as much as you have.

I'm confused what you mean by I know Lulia was away by a mile though? I agree Lulia would have scored, I've never said he wouldn't. My point was the ref called it a knock-on therefore giving leeds a free play, meaning they perhaps wouldn't have made the pass that Lulia intercepted if they hadn't been awarded a free play.

Wether Silverwood got the correct call becomes irrelevant as they can't go to the video ref after awarding leeds a free play when the players will obviously take a more risky approach with the knowledge whatever happens they get the ball back. To suddenly go to the video ref after telling the Leeds players this would be ridiculous. It's not their fault Silverwood got the call correct or not, in the context of what happened and the call silverwood made you could not suddenly reverse that knowing the implications.

Addy knocked on. Simple as. No need to check it.

Cheers.


Good point, and an example of unforeseen consequences. If Ablett (?) did indeed only throw a pass that he wouldn't have thrown if he was not sure it was a free play, then I would agree with you. I don't think on balance that was the case, as the ref's call came as he was already shaping to pass, but I can't say it wasn't, just that it didn't look that way.


Probably so. That's totally unsatisfactory position that this ridiculous and unnecessary new rule puts us in.

So we can agree, whilst the knock down may not have gone forward but due to the rules of the game, (which I amn't endorsing or agreeing with by the way), Silverwood couldn't have gone to the video ref after making the call he did?

It would be like saying to a defending team the opposition have knocked on, and the defence stops and they let a player run through and score making no attempt to tackle him, then suddenly the ref changing his mind and going to the video ref realising it wasn't a knock-on in the first place. Once a decision of that nature has been made you can't ignore it after.

Have I been living in a box? What is a "free play"?

Careful....

Erm yes... you have.

You surely must have seen teams 'chance their arm' with a free play after a knock on? Basically means that a team can try a risky play after the opposition have knocked on and if they don't score/gain advantage/ or if they knock on or lose possession then play is brought back to the original knock on.

While I am sure it was a knock on & the ref got it spot on I do wonder what would have happened if he had gone to the screen. As Purtell goes down the wing Blythe (IIRC) is in (distant) support; McGuire grabs him from behind by the collar & hauls him to the ground. Definitely a yellow card. That's twice Danny.