Does anyone else think like me and believe that if there is any amount of doubt in a decision the VR has to make, he has been advised to take the controversial one? Maybe to add more publicity to the game, good or bad?

That try in the GF was offside no doubts and no arguments, the decision by Bentham was a disgrace, its not a first and certainly wont be the last. Its becoming beyond a joke



Wasn't ar$ed about the result, it just upsets me that our game can be shown up in this way.

A terrible dicision that tonight by the video ref you clearly see he is infront of the kicker. he needs to go to an opticiaion for stronger lenses or demoted to national league 2 for that tonight even ganson looked bemused by the decision. to make a call like that on a game of some importance mars a great game of rugby. I feel for sts fans.

Couldn't agree more, the rules state;

Only players who were behind the kicker at the time they kicked the ball may interfere with the ball, i.e. a player can not kick the ball forwards to another player in order to gain ground.

Now, I believe it has to be both feet behind the kicker and I'm not sure Smith had one behind the kicker never mind two, the decision was a joke. However I don't think Saints would have gone on and scored after that anyway but in RL it only takes one mistake or one piece of brilliance to change a game and who knows?

it was a poor decition by the video ref which changed the game, we have been on the recieving end of simular incidents in the past and been done too.

Good to see the referee defenders are out tonite in force perhaps they only cum out if its against us

Like you have said, it was a shocking decision. How he tried to justify the decision by saying both of smiths feet were behind the ball when it was kicked was a joke!

Saints lost because of two mistakes by Meli and a bigger mistake by the Video Ref.

And they got beat by a better team

I was there so didn't see what was said on TV, but thought that it was off side as soon as I saw it.

Also, the one where Eastmond was tackled in to touch and a 20m restart was given - did he not touch the line before the flag?

And another point on the video refs - if I can see that Eastmond's and Disckin's were tries straight away from the tier2 quadrant, why the hell does Ganson need to get someone else to make decisions?

from on the tv it was hard to say if eastmond touch the whitewash, i didn't think he did but from one angle it looked like he might of done, another looked like he didn't.

Must admit the man on the telly has been a liability whenever I've watched Saints this year, cost them two try's no doubt about that.

As for Smith offside a mile even Stevie Wonder could see that..

You only had to look at the big white 10 yard line to see that smith was offside and in front of Mcguire. Mcguire's feet are about 1 foot in front of the line Smith's are at least two foot in front of it, so it doesn't matter what camera angle you use the line does not move so he Bentham should have spotted that.

No. I was there and also sitting close to the big screen. Eastmond was superb in avoiding the touchline. He was on his toes as he ran close to it. Damn shame, from Saints POV that is, that he hit the corner flag before grounding the ball. That lad deserved to be on the winning side.

Did Sean Long have a punt on the game

I agree with all that's been said. I thought the Smith "try" was so obviously offside.

You have to say that it was about par for the course for Mr Bentham. He's had a really bad season.

It left a really bad taste in the mouth in what was a pretty tense game for a GF.

Ironically I think Steve Ganson has been the best ref by a country mile this season (especially when it comes to players browbeating refs and punishing them for it).

It's the sort of decision that you would expect if we HADN'T got the video ref.

Bloody joke.

The video ref role has been turned into a pantomine by sky like everything else in RL (Playoff format, club call etc).

I have several observations about the Grand Final Refs.

1. Smith was off side and the try should not have been given. However, Leeds won by 7 points and therefore would still have won by 1 you could argue.

2. Eastmond was vvvvvvv close to the line and Bentham took the easy option as he definitely took the flag out. The stepping on the line was a tough one to call.

3. I thought on the whole Ganson did his best for his team and to have him refereesing a team he openly supports in any game let alone semi final and final is a disgrace. I do thiink he is one of the best refs but it is makes the game look like a farce IMHO.

A general point for me about the video ref is that I believe there is a rule saying that if there is any doubt the benefit of the doubt goes to the attacking team. Now if you need to look at it for minutes on end this should count as doubt. As someone has said it is becoming a pantomime and too often we are spending 5 minutes waiting for the video ref to look at angle after angle and close up after close up sometimes making it more and more confusing. Lets have some kind of common sense prevailing please.

As soon as I saw the first showing i said offside along with everybody else watching with us.

This is what gets on my nerves. How many times is the answer clear on first inspection, but they draw it out for about 10 views - you wonder what they are looking at. In trhe case of obvious ones like Diskin's I'd love the video ref to show contempt for the ref and just flash "try" up straight away as if to say "come on you cretin, it was bloody obvious".

In my opinion video refs should only rule on ball grounding, offside from a kick, and touch near the flag - anything else, like knock ons or obstruction in the build up should be for the officials to spot. It's rediculous when something happens in midfield, play goes on for 50 yards and a player "scores" - then on replay it is pulled back for an infringement on half way. If the same player had been tackled before the try line and the team scored on the next play, the offence wouln't have been spotted/penalised because the ref woudln't have had the opportunity to go to his back up.

I've seen that numerous times and I'm usually screaming at the T.V. for the player to take the taclke before scoring as it's obvious its going to be wiped off, especially when I've had a punt