They got a few lucky calls but you normally do when you're going forward as they were. Barstewards.

I*m sure i heard Eddie say that there is indeed a new rule in stating that you can now PTB even after the Ref has shouted held...Also the ball bouncing over the dead ball line and been carried out results in a drop out beneath the posts,,must admit,thats a strange one...

Similar to how the NRL works. The ref just usually tells them to go back and play it.

I agree in some instances as it must be tough to hear the ref and stop straight away when there's crowd noise and the like.

Yea the new dead ball rules is utterly stupid, it wasn't broken last year so no need to fix it.

The 'player not hearing the held call' did need looking at but now it's open to interpretation of ref, which mean it's going to wildly inconsistent, so that's still broken.

As for the match, nearly every infringement by saints was missed and Salford got a hard time from Silverwood; however, obviously and expectedly saints were always going to win.

The dead ball thing is stupid, the player taking it out of play is the one any ruling should be against, not a player already out of play. Is this to stop the rare occasion where the ball can be inside the field of play but the catching player puts one foot on the ground before catching, effectively bringing an out of play object in the field? If that's the case I can see the consistency with the corner flag.

In regards to the held & pass rule. Does the same ruling apply to the defenders? Are they now allowed to continue the tackle even after held being called?

The play the ball after being called held happened against Huddersfield last Sunday. We pushed them into touch after the ref shouted held, and this would have been a penalty last year. They just brought the ball back into the field and played the ball, carrying on with the count. Probably one of the best new rules introduced for a long time.

Not sure about the game being fixed, I thought saints played reasonably well 2nd half wit a fair bit of luck on their side. I've got to say though I was impressed with Salford's three quarter line!

Before a player straddling the line was classed as out of play and ball dead..now ball must touch something out of play before being touched by a player..ie advertising hoardings..touchie etc..makes defender try and run ball out rather than just putting one foot over line and getting a tap 20

I can understand the dead ball rule. The ball isn't officially in touch until it has touched either the line or bounced over the line, so it should be no different in the in-goal area.

Spot on.

in some ways the dead ball thing is correct as thats how it works on the sidelines but rls main attraction is the speed its played at and obviously that slows it down other than that it doesnt bother me because i can see the reasoning and you cant say that about the rfl very often.

Can't argue with that, Saints would probably have still won. BUT that doesn't alter how boring a game becomes when one side gets every decision and it becomes a walkover. It's such a shame to see an entertaining, competative 1st half followed by a complete bore-fest. From the people I've spoken to it seems I was in the minority in actually watching the game to its conclusion.

That said, Salford were their own worst enemy at times and it seemed like fatigue was the cause of many of their mistakes while Saints maintained their form - ATEOTD that's the difference between the best and the rest. Still, I persist in (naively) expecting more from our officials and just because Saints were bound to win, doesn't mean they get to hand them points.

case in point: I can just about forgive missing a double head high tackle on a player EXCEPT when it is replayed about 6 times as part of the VR decision!

I thought the ball was in touch if it came into contact with any object--including a player--who was in touch. That was the same for touch and TIG.

And this is how I prefer it personally.

going to make defending kicks a lot more difficult. think we will see a lot of ball being batted back in field by diving hands etc as defenders will likley not be escorting the ball out of play as they need to.

Exactly, which is the way it should be.

It has changed. It caters for the situation where the player passes the ball as the referee calls held.

But that wasn't the case last night. The ball was passed way after the held call. It should have been a penalty to Salford. Saints scored off the next play didn't they?

Didn't watch it, I was just mentioning the new rule. Omid Djalili at Middlesbrough Town Hall took precedence.

Yep. Wilkin under the posts.

I think it's repeated on Sky Sports 1 at 1 pm this afternoon.

The SL's main backer must be WWE

Yep;




The following changes to Law will apply to all RFL games from December 26th, 2011.

Players carry on running or pass the ball after the referee has called “Held”.
Players often struggle to hear the referee call held in an upright tackle. The award of a penalty is often seen as harsh. To allow the team to retain possession and continue with a play the ball the following Law should be amended.

Amendment -Section 11 – Law 6: Verbal instructions to resolve doubt.
If any doubt arises as to a tackle, the Referee should give a verbal instruction to “play on” or shout “held” as the case may be. If the referee is of the opinion that the player in possession could not hear the “held” call before passing or running off with the ball he should instruct the player to play the ball at the point where the player was when “held” was called unless it occurs after the fifth play the ball in which case a handover will apply.

Not fixed but Saints got every call. Still first points at Langtree park wasn't scored by the smellys.

No, it wasn't fixed, Salford were god damn awful in the 2nd half and Saints played some very entertaining stuff.