I would like to apologise to Smithy. I had a dig at him and said he dove for the Haggerty incident. Well after seeing it again our lad should have walked for his behaviour. Completely and utterly out of order. He will get 3-4atches for that and deserves it.

Good for you TV Boy. Takes a big man to say he is wrong.

It was all a bit unnecessary though. He'd made the tackle. The extra hit was just poor discipline.

Quote ="TV BOY"I would like to apologise to Smithy. I had a dig at him and said he dove for the Haggerty incident. Well after seeing it again our lad should have walked for his behaviour. Completely and utterly out of order. He will get 3-4atches for that and deserves it.'" I thought Smith hammed it up a bit t.b.h, but I put that down to his Danny McGuire schooled R.A.D.A upbringing whilst at Leeds . However, the inconsistencies from the officials were glaring today. I don’t think Sio deliberately put a crusher tackle on McNally (even though it ended up as one) but Haggerty deliberately put his knee is Smiths face. https://vine.co/v/eDtTiU2qeBb Most crusher tackles are put on report, but not sin-binned, whereas knees to the head usually result in a card of one colour or another.

Quote ="TV BOY"I would like to apologise to Smithy. I had a dig at him and said he dove for the Haggerty incident. Well after seeing it again our lad should have walked for his behaviour. Completely and utterly out of order. He will get 3-4atches for that and deserves it.'" I thought Smith hammed it up a bit t.b.h, but I put that down to his Danny McGuire schooled R.A.D.A upbringing whilst at Leeds . However, the inconsistencies from the officials were glaring today. I don’t think Sio deliberately put a crusher tackle on McNally (even though it ended up as one) but Haggerty deliberately put his knee is Smiths face. https://vine.co/v/eDtTiU2qeBb Most crusher tackles are put on report, but not sin-binned, whereas knees to the head usually result in a card of one colour or another.

Quote ="The Devil's Advocate"I thought Smith hammed it up a bit t.b.h, but I put that down to his Danny McGuire schooled R.A.D.A upbringing whilst at Leeds . However, the inconsistencies from the officials were glaring today. I don’t think Sio deliberately put a crusher tackle on McNally (even though it ended up as one) but Haggerty deliberately put his knee is Smiths face. https://vine.co/v/eDtTiU2qeBb Most crusher tackles are put on report, but not sin-binned, whereas knees to the head usually result in a card of one colour or another.'" It didn't go unpunished though did it! It went on report. How many times have you seen the crossed arms this season? Too many avenues available for refs to take, in my opinion. I don't understand were their decisions come from,what warrants a sin binning/red? Crossed arms is a scapegoat and should only be used if the officials haven't seen the incident in my eyes. Aston Sims in the Warrington v Wigan game blatantly stands on the wigan players hand at the ptb,ref walks up and says to him "I saw you stand on his hand" and sticks him on report. RFL ref ruling are too much of a grey area around these issues for me..

Quote ="The Devil's Advocate"I thought Smith hammed it up a bit t.b.h, but I put that down to his Danny McGuire schooled R.A.D.A upbringing whilst at Leeds . However, the inconsistencies from the officials were glaring today. I don’t think Sio deliberately put a crusher tackle on McNally (even though it ended up as one) but Haggerty deliberately put his knee is Smiths face. https://vine.co/v/eDtTiU2qeBb Most crusher tackles are put on report, but not sin-binned, whereas knees to the head usually result in a card of one colour or another.'" It didn't go unpunished though did it! It went on report. How many times have you seen the crossed arms this season? Too many avenues available for refs to take, in my opinion. I don't understand were their decisions come from,what warrants a sin binning/red? Crossed arms is a scapegoat and should only be used if the officials haven't seen the incident in my eyes. Aston Sims in the Warrington v Wigan game blatantly stands on the wigan players hand at the ptb,ref walks up and says to him "I saw you stand on his hand" and sticks him on report. RFL ref ruling are too much of a grey area around these issues for me..

Exactly what I said at the time

I've seen a lot of comment on the incident saying Lee Smith milked it but it doesn't take much of a blow on the chin or jaw to knock someone over or even knock them out. Milked or not milked, it was still a pre-meditated knee to the head, seen by the officials, and deserving of at least a yellow card.

I totally agree. He barely milked it to be fair, just a tad more than he should maybe?
Should have been at least a yellow card for sure.

It should have been a red, it was a coward's hit. Child bottled it.

Only seen clips of it but it looked very soft. Well done Smith for milking it to make sure the officials saw it but I don't think it was deserving of anything more than a penalty.

To be fair to Child, he asked his linesman and was told quite clearly by the grey haired one "it was a penalty, nothing more" or words to that effect. very clear on the commentary. Personally I thought he reffed the game pretty well considering all the niggle.

It wasn't a nudge though. It shook his head.
I thought he went down easy at first but on second look it looked harder.
Either way, it's not about how tough Lee Smith is. The guy kneed someone in the head, intentionally, outside normal play.

Presactly.

Tony Martin the same linesman that put his flag up at Wakey to say one of our players was in touch when video evidence clearly showed he wasn't. This guy gives wakey nothing at all.

He never has!

The Leigh man should have walked. Straight red card end of.
Have to say that in football he would have walked without hesitation.
Regardless of the severity you cannot knee somebody in the head and expect to stay on the field.

It does not matter whether Lee Smith got hurt or not, the intent was there for all to see, if he had suffered a broken jaw/cheekbone by this thug we would have lost him for the remainder of these play offs' while in the meantime old numbnuts with it going on report will likely get a ban which will help us how?.

I know what you mean, similar to getting a 2 match ban for dirty play when your player is out for 2 months. Should bans be based on the action or should it also include the outcome,eg. 2 matches for the action but he is banned until the victim returns to play and then his 2 match ban begins?

On Smith I think he did milk it but it was at minimum a yellow. Smith constantly moved forward from the point of the tackle and Child did nothing about this and this then causes unrest with the players.

I'm interested in what the officials had to say.

The old linesman said words to the effect of
'It's just a bang on the head nothing more than a penalty'

He was 60 metres away and on the wrong side of the incident!

Child said something like
'Lee Smith was partly at fault because he was attempting to tie Haggerty's other leg into the tackle'

There's absolutely zero evidence of that in the footage!

My opinion here is that the linesman is way too old to do the job and his eyesight is questionable to say the least, this is evidenced by the foot in touch from one of our earlier games.

The more sinister though is Child's comment which I believe is said purely for the review, he invents a narrative in order to validate his non action and should his judgement be called into question he has created some reasoning on his side.

The knee on Scruton was far worse IMO

In every match now players slide in with the knees, especially when another player is in the act of scoring and it is rarely penalised. It was an especially favoured tactic by one Sam Tomkins. I do think it needs to be policed better throughout the game. However how a touch judge can say, He's kneed him in the head, its a penalty and nothing more is beyond me! A deliberate knee to the head is a red card, regardless of how much contact is made or how hard he catches the victim the intent is there. Unsportsmanlike, dangerous and cynical.

Furthermore I played an amateur match yesterday where a player was sin binned for a high tackle, and then sin binned and sent off for bringing a player down by his collar. It amazes me that the rules of our game can be applied so stringently at an amateur level and yet completely ignored or bent in the modern game. I remember a few years ago when a prop for HKR was sent off at BV for a high shot on White, White had been running at speed and stepped him, the prop threw out his arm and caught White to the head, it looked shocking but it wasn't malicious, just a reaction. The prop was harshly given a red, the incident was clearly a penalty and probably a yellow a lot like Lee Smith's challenge yesterday. Yet in Superleague this year I've soon numerous swinging arm head shots let go with just a talking to.

How difficult is it for referees to apply the rules consistently!?!?

Exactly..Childs couldn't even point his arm to a try without going upstairs first..

I think the games getting out of control, we've seen some snidy and despicable acts sneaking into the game that wouldn't of been seen years ago, one of them is the crowding of the ref while making the decisions in the first place, it has to stop

Both the Sio crusher and the knee on Smith should have been a yellow.
I was surprised when Sio was given a yellow given the amount of foul play that had gone on before from Leigh - several high shots, petulant knees etc. Sio yellow probably correct but inconsistent with how the game had been policed beforehand.

It was a nasty incident that should have been more harshly penalised - I watched the game back and listened with incredulity as both Child and Martin talked their way out of a card by justifying it to each other; the other teams will no doubt benefit from a ban, which is the ongoing issue with 'on report' - it's simply unfair for the team who have been fouled.

Interesting that Childs also said after the seventh penalty in the first half , that the next one would see a Leigh player walking.
The eigth penalty resulted in him doing the signal for "the next one would see a Leigh player walking" - though he failed to control the game and showed no control.