Silverwood must be the worst official in SL though.

3 tries from forward passes in the past 2 weeks.

Maybe time to let the video referee adjudicate for a forward pass or develop technology to do so?

Regarding the Worrincy penalty -

It should have been a penalty to Bradford - not because he didn't kick it 10 metres, but because Briers took the drop-out from a metre forward in the first place. How can the referee not notice something as obvious as that??

What I fail to understand is why a ref can adjudicate a knock on such as the Menzies 'touch'. I said to my old man at the time that surely the only decision the video ref can judge on is whether Menzies touched the ball or not. But apparently Ganson ruled he had touched the ball but it went backwards.. dodgy ground surely?

But I see no reason why a blatant forward pass should not be scrubbed off by the video ref. The one versus Leeds was ridiculously forward no matter what angle you viewed it from. There will be plenty of instances where the pass is flat or dubious in which case BOD should come into play. But surely for the ridiculous the video ref can rule it out?

The problem I see with the video referee being allowed to rule on passes is that they can appear both forward and backwards at the same time when viewed from different camera angles.

I agree the pass from Sinfield to Delaney clearly travelled forward but without there is a camera almost directly in line (which obviously there can't always be) I'd rather the calls were left in the hands of the three officials out there.

Well it certainly wouldn't be perfect (certainly not with our video refs) but I think there should be some flexibility on the 100% forward passes such as last week. It would be very tough to judge on a short flat pass for example so I doubt there would be too many instances where the video ref can make a definitive call.

Perhaps the captain should have a 'refer to the video ref call' like Phil Clarke suggested. In this instance the video ref could 'advise' it looks forward or not and hand the call back to the referee. Fans of other sports must chuckle at out video ref system when a 'blatant' forward pass is allowed to stand because the video ref isn't allowed to even consider the offence.

Thats actually one of clarkes more sensible ideas. Theres 2 problems with it that I can see.
Firstly you could have teams using it tactically to slow things down at a crucial point in match. To counter this it would be necessary to only allow a team to ask a pass to checked a very limited number of times ,3 maybe?, and also maybe be awarded a penalty against them if the pass is found to be ok ( this would discourage it being used unless team were very sure a forward pass had occured).
secondly only the 2 sky matches and catalans if they are at home have Video refs, so effectively we'd be giving further advantages to the games played under video ref. Only solution for this is to bring in VR at all games which would cost money.

as an aside I already feel catalans are at a small unfair advantage having VR at all their home games already.

Indeed Clarke's idea was to allow only one 'captains call' per half.

On Saturday Ganson correctly ruled 'no try' on Sam Tomkins just before half time (as he was held up) but crucially awarded a handover to Leeds as the restart, despite what appeared a fairly clear knock forward from Lee Smith under the bomb.

Then yesterday he (Ganson) apparently saw the Menzies touch (Halley pass to Sheriffe) but ruled it went backwards.

With decisions like those I'm not sure we should continue with the video referee system at all, nevermind sending any more decisions their way.

Well there's another debate! I'm not a huge video ref fan either in all honesty but I think it is here to stay!

It's pretty clear from almost every replay that a pass is forward. The last two weeks it has been anyway. Why the video ref can't rule on it is beyond me. Half the decisions they have to make are 50/50 calls anyway, it would be no worse to call on forward passes.

The ball from Lee Briers to Ryan Atkins (?) to score yesterday is a good example of a pass that can look quite different depending on the camera angle. From behind the posts - legal, from everywhere else - dubious.

Then there are those passes like Lee Smith to Greg Eastwood last week that look fine from every angle bar the ones viewed by the on field officials.

The Briers to Atkins pass appeared fine but I will agree the Monahan to Anderson was clearly forward. I also think the touch for Bradfords try was also clearly forward. There are enough offcials on the pitch to get the majority of incidents called correctly (nobody is perfect) but I also dont think we have seen the last of video referees. One thing I would say as regards forward passes is one thing that will assist is to make a forward pass any pass where the ball travels forward....none of this garbage momentum rubbish. Physics have shows that by spinning the ball whilst passing it "level" the ball can actually travel 2 feet forward across a 15 yard gap.

Please, can we not do this one again? Pretty please? Suffice it to say that such a silly change would wipe out many of the greatest tries ever seen. There is nothing, at all, wrong with the rule. Only people who can't understand it.

No worries and I agree that many superb tries would be technically ruled out. I was merely expressing that for as long as there is room for interpretation within the rule, the decision MUST remain with the ref. On he can may the decision about whether there was backward play of the ball. I should have said that the only way for a video ref to make the call would be if the rule was scrapped and they can say "yeh or neh" it went backward. I do once again state that, even as a wires fan, GOD KNOWS HOW THEY MISSED THAT ONE!!!!

Why would it be an advantage to Catalans? Are you suggesting there is some kind of in-built advantage to the home team? Surely the replay is just a fact, it's just a tool used by the officials and it works equally well (or badly) for both sides in any given match?

In theory there is far less chance of a try being incorrectly disallowed if a VR has the chance to dissect the slo-mo.

If that were true, then having a VR at every home game would indeed give you a sneaky advantage in terms of the dodgy looking tries which you probably wouldn't have been awarded. Like Sunday's "ball an inch from the line" try. That would never have been given.

In practice, of course, it is irrelevant given the rank useless level to which our inconsistent VRs have now sunk.

Is the referee for Sunday

Bradford Bulls v Huddersfield Giants 3pm
Ref J Child TJ R Cowling TJ T Martin IG A Smith IG J Leahy RR R Everitt TK I Ollerton MC G Kershaw

Would that be the same Gerry Kershaw who cost us the 2002 Grand Final?

Any chance of detailing the Refs who don't hate Bradford, Mick.

Ian Smith

A break from Silverwood




I do think Ian Smith is one of the best officials though Mick (Thaler isn't bad). Bentham & Silverwood are by far the worst though.

Our record under Ian Smith from the last two years

Wakefield 10-29 Bradford
Harlequins 18-42 Bradford
Hull KR 32-12 Bradford
Bradford 32-16 Wakefield
Bradford 10-6 Leeds
Catalans 24-30 Bradford
Castleford 16-18 Bradford
Bradford 42-14 Hull FC
Bradford 40-20 Hull KR

Only the one loss = best referee.

Ah, so now we have it. The best referees are the ones that Bulls get the wins under.

Glad that's all sorted, then!

It's not just that, I like Smith as a referee, he stamps out the unnecessary stuff early on as the game at Belle Vue showed.

We also know how to play Smith.