According to the rulebook of televised games, he probably did. It only has to show the slightest touch with the hand, Meli at Wigan last year (I think) was an example of this.





In my eyes, L'Estrange knocked the ball out of his hand (not purposely, just in the tackle) which I think is now a knock on whether they went to knock it out or went to tackle IIRC.

in that situation, the video ref has no choice but to give benefit of the doubt. not sure why Silverwood went to video when he was stood right over the play with his face inches from the incident, then claimed he hadnt seen it.

Not sure how he expected Thaler to have a magical camera that could see through a pile of players from 50m away, but surely he knew it was going to end up being BOD, so may as well have just given the try.

Phil Clarke said, "These two teams have managed to take the 'Super' out of Super League." That was an understatement. Mistakes throughout, poor playing standards seen in the skill levels on show accompanied by a very ordinary performance by the referee. Thank goodness we don't see many games like this in a season. Let's hope it has lulled the St George Dragons into a false sense of security regarding the standards in SL.

poor crowd too, hopefully caused the the 6 nations being on

if maintained it will be hard for the club to survive on such gates

laughing at another RL club doing poorly, thats pathetic

A fair assessment.

I imagine the Crusaders care about the low crowd though. It's all lost revenue isn't it.

It's just their problem...they will need to address it, but it has SFA to do with anyone else.
For nearly 10 years I have banged on about our terrible crowds...on here, the the RFL and directly to the club.....in the same period, I have defended us against throw away comments from the flat earth society regarding our attendance problems.....It is our problem....it has nothing to do with anyone other than the club and the RFL......but when Wakefield, who everyone thinks it will be, are ejected from SL, these boards will go into meltdown regarding Crusaders, Quins and possibly Salford having crap crowds and having no place in SL.

Without SKY TV, Professional RL in the UK would be dead or very nearly dying.......the flat earth society seem to want to forget this...they'd rather halifax and Widnes were in and we and the welsh were out......Wigan and maybe 2 other clubs would remain full-time pro, the rest would be part time.......the fans would do what they were doing in the early 90's...drift away and the game would go back to being a local past time........that's progress according to the flate earth society


BTW.......to date, Halifax still hold the record for the lowest average attendance during a season.........

I turned off the match when L'Estrange scored that easy try. I never knew that I still had a deep rooted problem with Bradford winning



However the game was better than the union one between England and France. That was a kick-a-thon, stop and start affair before I could switch it over to the rugby league.

I agree tbh, but it will help when he has his first choice 6, 7 & 13 available, and when he doesn't have a player taken off injured early on.

Not using that as an excuse though, there were some apalling errors from us and we will have to improve on that. Just glad we got the 2 points though.

More importantly than L'estrange potentially knocking on to score the try was that he wasn't standing square.

......thank god for that. I thought I was the only person to notice that.

I couldn't help watching it thinking, ok stadium but what's the point if there is no one in it? 7k in an old stadium or 2k in a modern stadium, which portrays the poorer image for the sport?

FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME........
Crowds are not the main concern of the RFL at this stage...........and don't forget the massive crowds that English RL was getting prior to Super League in say 1994.......

Actually not a bad deal by the RFL , they will in two years time own a stadium in Wrexham , and hopefully it will spell the end of stupid ill thought out expansion

Maybe they will then start to do things properly

I was there and while the VR was looking at the L'Estrange 'try' the players were preparing for a scrum (presumably for a Gareth Thomas knock-on) and when Thaler gave it Bradford couldn't believe their luck. As for the 'Benefit of the Doubt' one, I was actually at pitch level by the corner flag about to potter off and there's no way on earth that anyone could have said whether the ball was grounded or not. As the players disentangled themselves the ball was on the line with a Crusaders arm on it, but whether that happened before or after play had stopped was impossible to tell. I have to admit to having the naughty thought that he gave it to even out his earlier cock-up.

can someone explain the difference between benefit of the doubt and refs call?

The RFL or NRL?







It'll be a long wait though or something incomprehensible

'Benefit of the Doubt' = not absolutely sure, but go on then, it will make the scores more even and the game more exciting.

'Ref's Call' = haven't got a clue on this one, thought I'd give you the job of antagonising at least 50% of the crowd/viewers. i live around here and people know me.

If the ref new the decision he would have given it!!If the VR cant tell after watching 10 times then how the hell is the ref going to know what it is!! It puts unnecessary pressure on the ref.

Only the Aussies

L'Estrange grounded the ball after Silverwood blew the whistle. I've checked the rule book and cannot see how you can award a try scored after play has stopped.
No ask Stuart Cummins available this year?

No he didn't. L'Estrange is on the ground and the whistle is blown.

Actually he blew before L'Estrange grounded it , I've just forced myself to rewatch it, even eddie who hates the Crusaders commented on it but as they say its history now

Ah, Phil Clarke, the man who once said: "We shouldn't let the fact that the ball was passed forward detract from what was a wonderful try". Personally, I find it hard to take anything he says seriously after that.

Not that it was a brilliant game, it clearly wasn't but it did contain ten tries, some of which were quite good ones, and there was a good bit of hard hitting defence (in between all the missed tackles), some clever passes (and a good bit of dropped ball). All in all, whilst never great, it wasn't as bad as it was painted.

In a game between two sides, one of which has just come out of administration and hasn't got its full crew aboard and another which has lost both first choice halfbacks and has virtually brought in a totally new squad (and new coach) [iand[/i it was only the third game of the season, I'll look forward to better things and live with what we got.

I disagree. If there had been no video the ref would have had to make the call. All he has to do is make the same call. It might be right or might be wrong, just like any other decision made by countless referees up and down the land; we all have a cheer/moan and get on with the game. He's just deciding whether, or not, someone scored in a rugby match, not starting world war three.