can anyone enlighten me on who was supposed to be offside i,ve watched loads of times

and can't see it

No one was offside, just as saints didnt deserve to be on the receiving end of a `10 - 1 penalty count in their favour.

I think we got 2 penalties in the end.

The refereeing of MM was eccentric to say the least, with one game having 37 penalties (if we want to attract people used to watching RU then I suppose that's one way of doing it!) to the ridiculous refereeing of the Wigan v Saints game, where until around the 73rd minute when a penalty was (wrongly!) awarded against Saints, the referee had only penalised Saints once in the whole game.

Was thinking this myself, I just can’t see why it was given. If Eastmond’s drop goal had been successful then a lot more would have been made of it.

I reckon Silverwood got a word in his ear at half time. Something along the lines of "This is supposed to be a showacase game, make a game of it". The second half he caned us for breathing. There was a couple of chances one after another to penalise Saints when we were right under their sticks but he just ignored it. The forward pass for their last try was so blatant even Leeds and Bradford fans sat near me called it on open play and they certainly didnt want us to win.

That's entirely possible.

Also possible is that Saints were a lot more disciplined. I was surprised how quickly our tacklers got off the man, giving the referee little to pull them up on.

Like two tackles in a row under Saints sticks before they scored their 3rd try? They took long enough in them tackles to be penalised thats for sure going off the other penalties he gave. The invisible offside was another and add that to the american football 3rd try/touchdown and it stunk to high heaven.

Ok. In that case your first hypothesis must be the correct one.

Lmao!
Even when Saints don't win, I never sink as low as blaming the ref, it makes you look like such an idiot! Shit happens, and I think you should just get on with it and accept the fact that you're not as invincible as you all thought you were!

just watch the replay and see if you can see anyone offside , it was a made up penalty by the ref and almost cost us

Agreed was little unsure who was offside during the last play. In regards to meli's try then yes it certainly looked forward. Let's not forget though Wigan scored off the back of a goal line drop out that never was.

The worst one for me was the blatant offside when eastmond got the wigan kick and dropped it into a player in front of him, shockingly simple decision to get right, crucial saints were all over the place at that point

Still dont really understand it the touch judge was there and at least 10m closer than me

It happened two metres away from the touchjudge as well. Shocking.

Strangely enough the pitch markings provide an excellent guide for who is and isn't off-side for any official who is actually looking.


Even stranger, though, is the fact that Silverwood blew his whistle just when Gleeson won the ball back for Wigan by tapping it back to Goulding. Apparently we weren't off-side until then.

There will be one thing I am sure and that is Stuart Cummings will not answer this point. It is not the big in front penalties it is those as somebody has said that change the course of the game e.g. the non penalty when Eastmond knocks on Charnley's pass to Tompkins, nothing done.

There are too many instances of penalties for no apparent reason and how can there be such discrepancy between matches when 37 penalties are given in one match and less than 15 in another although the balance here was wrong. I seem to remember that Mr Childs was the referee at a world cup match who missed the winger treading on the line 2/3 times and also a more blatant forward pass than ever we see e.g. the Meli try, but his eyes are now so keen he can see all sorts of incidents that others wonder what is going on.

So once again where is the consistency and what is the point of professional referees if they have such different interpretations?

The same also I think applies when a game is not exciting and there were 2 instances last night when Bradford are well in front and a try is disallowed for Bradford after close to 3 minutes of review, I thought that if there is doubt the attacking side gets the decision, so id it takes this long is it not a bit doubtful, not if it is Leeds and is needed to make it a closer game. In the same game I think the first tackle after Leeds had scored, a penalty was given for I think not getting off quickly enough and if you watch this on review you will see absolute nothing different to what has gone on previously. However this gives the momentum and so a game changes and don't Sky love this.

it is the momentum swings that win modern matches and whatever one says about Rugby Union there are very few calls that have as much effect as what we see. The innocuous penalties are the ones that change matches not necessarily the penalty try decisions. I will just ponder a question here do you think the same decision would have been made at the other end if it was Bradford attacking just a question?

From a Wigan perspective let us hope there is not a sympathetic reaction to Bradford on Sunday just the same rules for all of us.

Cummins still dictating the way the games go, and will continue to do so as long as he has his little band of spineless "YES SIR NO SIR , THREE BAGS FULL SIR" helpers.

It's about time the RFL did something about the touch judges, and I'm not going on about the Meli try, in every game you see there will be at least 2 or 3 incidents were it's obvious a forward pass has been thrown,the touch judge will be up with the play, and......... nothing happens.
And don't bother telling me about "momentum", we all know there will be times when a deliberate forward pass is debatable, but equally there are forward passes that are obviously deliberately thrown.
When it's clear to everybody watching and nothing is done it just winds everyone up, and why can the ref not go to the video ref for a forward pass when a try has been scored ?

I agree about the touch judges - they really do need to get more involved - half the games they may as well not be there for all the good they do.

The forward pass is not judged on video replay because the different camera angles can make a good pass look well forward or vice versa - this has been shown to be the case many times (pretty much most televised games have at least one instance of a pass looking forward which isn't). As there is no way of ensuring the correct call on this basis it has never been allowed and quite rightly so.

The only way you could even attempt to determine a forward pass thorugh technology would be something like the hawkye systems used in cricket and tennins and there is no way the RFL could afford that, even if it could be proven to work.

Yet they can adjudicate on knock-ons, and the same principal must surely apply to them.


Get Sky to pay for it.

Now that's likely

All this nonsense about not being able to judge foward passes on replays is ridicularrrse.

Over head camera, look where the man passing the ball passes in terms of his position on the pitch, look where the man recieves the pass in relation to the "passer". Easy.

I find it silly that we go on about how our technology is far in advance to football yet we cant even judge on whether a balls gone forward!

So at no greater disadvantage than an official on the field then? And possibly even an advantage thanks to different angles which may show ball trajectory relative to field markings. If the video ref is [iunable [/ito adjudicate on it at the time then fair enough, but to assume beforehand that they cannot and therefore never should is silly, especially when they adjudicate on knock-ons that can be just as contentious in which the only defining factor may be that the video ref has inferred an absence of intention on the ball carrier's part (i.e. they have assumed that it was not a pass but a fumble).

Wrong. On this basis most passes in the game would be forward. If you run and throw a ball horizontally or even slightly backwards it will land forwards of the point you threw it (watch a player pass just as he gets tackled by the full back or throw a ball out of your car if you don't believe me). Forward passes are about whether you throw it at a forward angle, which isn't the same as it being caught in front of where you threw it.