The NRL suspended a Canterbury player for 4 weeks following a crusher tackle over the weekend.He was sin binned and placed on report in the match.


On appeal led by a high profile criminal lawyer the 4 match ban was confirmed.

There was also the wigan try that was chalked off on sunday due to nsemba hitting someone's outside shoulder thus obstructing the defender which was a carbon copy of what happened the week before on briscoe which was let go and the try awarded.


I'm convinced they change their opinions on things week by week, probably due to spotting mistakes but it would be better all round if they were transparent about it.


If wegcot a weekly communication from the RFL explaining contentious decisions, whether the ref was right or wrong, and clarifying things everyone would be happier.  It just needs to be the key things, maybe nothing some weeks.  For instance if they came out this week and said the VR had made a mistake on the knight red card due to not viewing all of the angles and that in future, all angles would be checked before issuing a red card then at least you have some confidence it won't happen again.  As it is it's just a stone wall silence and no one is any the wiser whether they have actually acknowledged the error beyond the MRP

We all make mistakes and I don’t expect officials to get everything right 100% of the time.


They will make errors. Especially in a fast paced sport like RL and it must be very difficult to police a game.


But a high percentage of the errors are against us and some are clear things (crusher tackles) that they shouldn’t be getting wrong. Especially with technology and the assistance they receive.


I appreciate people saying our discipline needs to be a lot better and yes it should. But this is in giving away stupid penalties like Rapana high tackle and Ashworth not being square at marker but tackling Woolford when he ran at him. They are dumb plays. Same as Knight. That was a dumb play.


We need to be smarter but also keep some physicality about us.

Thats what in relation to the ground means though. If you are running forward you can knock on and the ball can end up behind you, buts it's still a knock on because the ball has travelled forward "in relation to the ground."

It's adjudged differently to a forward pass where the ground doesn't matter, it's all about direction out of the hands.

I can accept errors from the on field official but the VR has time and multiple angles to get it right and regularly doesn't and it's spoiling games and costing teams points (us anyway).  It's also the lack of consistency.  One week an offence will be a card, the next it's not even penalised.  I also think we're going to get to the point soon where players will clock up enough points to get a ban and then further bans follow quickly after due to the way the points system works 

Yes of course..... he was sin binned!