Sam is clever, but Sinfield is a poophouse. Always playing the game on the margins and getting away with it. But the way Eddie was giving it too Sam, the guy is a disgrace to his proffession. Complete tool.

PPS It is illegal.

As quoted to me by a referee this morning...

[iA player is not allowed to obstruct in any way a defenders movement. Basically this therefore forms an obstruction. If the referee was confident that the tackled player was doing this deliberately then a penalty should be awarded.

Alternatively he could give the benefit of doubt to both players and allow the defender to 'untangle' himself from the tackled player as the defender is always cautious of inadvertantly dislodging the ball.[/i

I thought that a lot of the time they were targeting markers who weren't square, though Alibert never pulled them up for it.

I remember at least three occasions when one of the markers was in no mans land between the defensive line and the marker position, and therefore in an offside position but still made a tackle without being pulled up for it.

I'm sure that's true. It's just his complaints about scooting and incorrect play-the-balls only ever seem to crop up after he's watched a Saints game on TV - funny that.

Agreed.

The issue of the tackled player holding the tackler, or more specifically Sam Tomkins holding McGuire and Sinfield, is a fairly straightforward one in my view; he was only afforded the opportunity to obtain a penalty when the tackler was attempting to dislodge the ball by sticking his arm in between the ball and the body. When the tackle is complete, it's then the tacklers responsibility to clear the ruck - it's not the tackled players responsibility to make that easy for him.

What you're left with is a mexican stand-off between a player who was attempting the marginally legal act of trying to dislodge the ball in a tackle, and a tackled player commiting the marginally legal act of clamping the interfering arm along with the ball. Both will refuse to be the first to disentangle, as the tackler gives a gilt edged opportunity for the tackled to drop the ball and claim stripping; conversely, the tackled could easily drop the ball in the process and be blown up for a knock on. Essentially, it's a clash of gamesmanship, which Tomkins comprehensively won on this occasion. The short term answer, which Mr Ganson is on record as saying during a match, is to keep your arms out in the first place.

As I've said in another thread; both Leeds and Wigan are teams that play the game at the very edges of legailty and as such, both test the rules, sometimes to destruction. That type of play requires the very highest standard of refeering and that's something that, unfortunately, we simply don't get in SL on a consistent basis and certainly didn't get in this match, which was officiated with an alarming degree of ineptitude.