I thought of this yesterday when Thurston gave away a penalty when Hall was in the process of scoring. If you give away a Penalty in the process of a opposition player scoring a try it should be a straight red card just like the last man rule in football. Thoughts

I don't think it was worthy of a red card.

Having said that, if Tony Williams, Issac Luke or Jeremy Smith aren't sent off I don't know what is a red card.

A "Penalty try" should be awarded when an act of foul play prevents a player from scoring a certain try.
Australian commentators were up in arms with the decision.
Thurstons clumsy attempt did not prevent Halls try.
He was passed the Thurston's high shot and still in control of the ball, it was Luke Lewis's knees that knocked the ball from Halls hands.
It should have been a penalty against Australia.

Not a red card for me, but if Hall had got the ball down it would have been a chance of an 8 point try as he would have been fouled in the act of scoreing.

I would sugest that Thurstans high shot made Hall loosen his grip on the ball as well as lifting his body up (had the tackle not been high Hall would have been closer to the floor & the line) so the following tackler could knock the ball out!

Well not just that incident last night, but overall it should be looked at. For the record I don't care what the Australian commentators think.

i think if he hadnt been fouled by thurston and tackled legally he would have got the ball down before the knees came flying across. i would like to point out that you cant dive in with your knees either which luke lewis has done, even if unintentional.

i'm sure i got told a few years ago, you can't giev a penalty try and send the offender off, thats punishing the offending team twice, though isn't that what happened to raynor earlier this year?

did he dive in with the knees?

It's simple , Thurston made a deliberate attempt at Ryan Halls head , it wasn't a ' slip up from the shoulders ' , Ryan is taller than Thurston , it wasn't ' clumsy , or accidental ' , it was deliberate , and it was to stop him scoring a try , so are we a sport ? or is it ultimate fighting ?

The second player in could be construed as accidental , there is doubt which should be considered

So defiantly a penalty try , and possibly a red card , a few years ago a player got red carded for a deliberate high tackle within the first few seconds of a match , the tackle last night was exactly the same , the result should have been the same

It wasn't quite simply because the referee was too scared to send the player off , and this will continue as long as the Australian sports governing body are vindictive to anybody that doesn't do what they want , any NRL referee giving that type of decision would very soon lose their job in the NRL

It really is quite pathetic

Let's put it this was did not use his arms, shoulders or hands

A penalty try is awarded for a foul which in the opinion of the official involved prevented a try being scored which if the foul hadn't happened would have been scored. The fact that the try was then awarded nehates the effect of the foul and so it is as if the foul hadn't happened. Hence no red card!!

It wasn't a penalty try.

Luke Lewis knocked the ball out not Thurston.

The ball was already falling before Lewis made contact however he did go in with the knees which is also illegal.

I won't pretend to understand the rules however my take on it was - the illegal tackle slowed Halls momentum. Had it not taken place one can make the case that the 2nd tackler would not have got close to him prior to grounding the ball. On those grounds I think the refs opinion that a try would have been scored but for the foul play is legitimate.

As for the foul play being meritous of a sending off. Remove the incident from the penalty try issue and I believe many similar incidents result in sending offs. Personally I think it was worthy of a sending off, deliberate or accidental it was illegal and very dangerous.

Watch it at full speed - not slow motion. Of course it was a penalty try.

regardless of the lack of intention in luke lewis' knees, is it not clear that going in with the knees is wreckless play, which is quite often penalised?

Hall's previous 3 tries in this series, all much harder finishes than last night's would suggest that without the headshot the try would have been pretty well nailed on.
I also think Thurston knew this. I don't believe a player of his intelligence, sharpness and ability would commit that type of tackle unless he was pretty certain there was no other way to stop Hall.

I've read some e on these forums but this takes the biscuit!!

Thurston made no attempt to tackle Hall and instead committed a blatant foul in an attempt to prevent the try; had Hall not been fouled, there is no doubt he would have put the ball down cleanly.

Lewis compounded it by sliding in with his knees - again, no attempt at a legal tackle, just a foul to prevent the try.

Not sure how you sort all that out, but Thurston should have walked - the fact that he did the same thing to Tomkins later in the game was just sticking two fingers up at the gutless ruling body that allows the Aussies to pick their own ref.

It was a clear-cut penalty try.

Thurston should have been sin-binned.

We still would have lost.

So you are happy to see deliberate attacks to the head in RL ?

It wasn't a penalty try. The Aussie media are spewing about it too.

Good job the video ref isn't an idiot as well. I must have missed the directive that the opinions of biased Australian commentators mean anything more than jack sh*t.



Clear penalty try and at least 10 minutes for Thurston. Williams and Thurston throw 2 blatant head shots and get nothing. Weak officiating in the face of the usual ocker bitching about referees.

Who gives a f*k what Australian journalists think?

(see Cronus's post above)