Monday 3 September 2007

Penalty try?

Just when you think the standard of Super League referring can't get any lower - Silverwood as the video ref awards a Penalty Try to Leeds in their game yesterday at Bradford. Diskin was reaching out to ground the ball - he didn't look in command of the situation! - and Platt got his hands under the ball (as anyone would do to try and stop someone scoring). The ball ended up in Platt's hands - saying he stole the ball was stretching the situation to its limits as far as I could see. And would Diskin have DEFINITELY scored had he not given the ball to Platt?

Phil Clarke called it dead right during the commentary. If this is a precedent, all you'll need to do is let go of the ball once you're over the line and hey presto - 4 points and a kick straight in front of the posts.

If the ball was stolen, a penalty should have been awarded. But for me the ball was lost over the line and Bradford should have been given a 20m restart.