I can't believe fans are calling for a Red for that 'Spear tackle'

There was no intent to spear, it was a tackle around the waist, there was no lifting between the legs there was no driving the player into the deck. When the player went past the horizontal he started to pull out of the tackle realising the way he was going.

You see those kind of tackles every couple of weeks and every time it's a penalty because the tackle has become dangerous. But it's simply down to the way bodies move in the tackle. You can't in a split second account for the way a player is going to fall.

To me it's very similar to a high shot when a player is going down in the tackle. There is no intent but because it ends up around his head a penalty must be given, regardless of the fact the players intent.

But as I said earlier, fans have their blinkers on and only see what they want to see. If we are going to red every player who makes dangerous tackles, then Leeds and Bradford would have had about 5 or 6 reds between them last night, simply from tackles that hit high despite the intention.

We could start with Maguire who gave a lovely high shot near the end of the game. No contact with the shoulders, straight red, no need to look at intent or the fact the player was falling causing maguire to end up around the head.

wrong.
he got one decision wrong all night,the knock on against sinfield,the rest of the time he had no option but to penalise both teams for indiscipline,leeds in particular were petulant and niggly in the last 10-15 minutes when they should have been composed and seen the game out.are you suggesting bentham was wrong to penalise peacock for his push on bateman? had he not done that sinfield would have probably won the game with the drop goal.
are you seriously suggesting he was wrong to penalise leeds for offside in the last 2 minutes and giving peacock his marching orders thus allowing bradford to steal a point? even before that he could and should have got mcguire for pushing sammut as he was trying to play the ball.
not one of the officials calls last night cost leeds, as i've said previously,leeds players indiscipline cost leeds,to blame the officials is way off the mark.

he tells whitehead that he had already let him go before he hit the ground which is why he didn't send him off, to be fair to JJb he just got stright up and got on with it.

As usual the comments on here are of mixed accuracy etc. Yes, Ablett and Peacock lost it and went into red mist mode. Sadly that's what happens when the ref spends almost the whole game forgetting to get the Bulls players onside (I did not notice it as much the other way - obviously), and gets no help from his touch judges, one of whom should have gone to Specsavers as he couldn't spot a forward pass when it was right in front of him ( 3 in one movement?) They should be able to rein it in - they didn't and it cost us. If Bails had shoved the young TJ he would have gone over as his thin long legs would not have been enough to hold him up. I just hate it when an officlal has the greatest influence on the outcome of a game instead of the players' skill and hate it even more if some players enhance that incompetence by losing their rag.
Without Bentham's many errors - both ways - we would probably have won, but we should be able to overcome his inept performance. Last night that was just too much and so a draw was probably a 'fair' but very disappointing result, because it was influenced by things other than the skills and talent that were on show from two sets of players.

But he still took him beyond horizontal which still an issue

Correct call on JJB, top effort that which I didn't fully see in the South Stand

Sorry, the game was influenced by the players, Leeds players in particular.
If they'd have used their skills and talent correctly they may have won the game.
Leeds tried everything to disrupt Bradford late in the game and could have been pinned a lot more.

The Leeds players who played it fair and tried to win the game should be having a word with the others.

Why not?



Still a penalty conceded while in possession and in good field position. Still one of the dumbest things you'll ever see on a rugby field. Similar to giving a penalty away on the 5th tackle and in Leeds' abysmal final nine minute spell we had one of those from Bailey as well. Coach killers.



I understand the point (and don't disagree in principal) but by specific I was hoping for a time in the game so that I could easily locate them and have a look. It's just that I don't recall seeing any (on first viewing) quite as obvious as the Peacock one on 71.

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Another mistake from Bentham - definite penalty, although in fairness he probably knew it was McGuire - the highest try scorer in SL history rather than Maguire - the ex Wigan coach and once upon a time Adelaide full-back skinned by Paul Sterling on his way to a wonder try at Headingley in 1997.

My only beef with Bentham is the spear tackle was a straight red card.

Quote oldladyrhino="oldladyrhino" If Bails had shoved the young TJ he would have gone over as his thin long legs would not have been enough to hold him up. '" As I said previously it appeared from the footage that Bailey may have given him a shove. No idea whether it was deliberately aimed at the official or accidental but in live play at 70:25 precisely (clock was still running) Bailey is behind the official and appears to shove him in the back - the official appears to react as if some physical contact has been made. I'll be interested to see what the RFL have to say - if anything - after they suspended Bailey for three matches last year for making deliberate contact with an official: the ruling on that incident can be read here - www.therfl.co.uk/the-rfl/disciplinary/item?3407

Quote oldladyrhino="oldladyrhino" If Bails had shoved the young TJ he would have gone over as his thin long legs would not have been enough to hold him up. '" As I said previously it appeared from the footage that Bailey may have given him a shove. No idea whether it was deliberately aimed at the official or accidental but in live play at 70:25 precisely (clock was still running) Bailey is behind the official and appears to shove him in the back - the official appears to react as if some physical contact has been made. I'll be interested to see what the RFL have to say - if anything - after they suspended Bailey for three matches last year for making deliberate contact with an official: the ruling on that incident can be read here - www.therfl.co.uk/the-rfl/disciplinary/item?3407

yes, the players indiscipline!if peacock hadn't gone after bateman you probably would have won,but lets blame the ref shall we instead?

unintentionally.
once he realised where the tackle was going he released him,by then momentum had taken him beyond horizontal, it was dangerous yes but not malicious and whitehead let him go as soon as he realised he'd messed up.after that nothing could stop jjb from turning over.

I thought there were some poor calls, and we did seem to be on the wrong end of a few of them, at inconvenient times. The turnover after Kearney clearly and obviously touched it was unacceptable, im not not sure that the Hall try wasn’t a huge mistake, if it wasn’t, then we should look at the rules again because JJB had nothing at all to do with that try being scored, Sinfield drop out being given as a knock on was wrong but these things happen. There were a few bits and bobs and Bentham seemed to lose a bit of control and start pinging things at random, he seemed to swing from letting things go to clamping down on things without warning. The spear tackle wasn’t malicious, but that isn’t really relevant. Whitehead has a duty of care and he lost control of that tackle. The fact JJB wasn’t injured was luck not judgement. We aren’t strict on spear tackle because it is nasty, it is banned because it is dangerous and that tackle was dangerous regardless of intent. I would hope Benthams bosses aren’t happy with that performance, some of those decisions weren’t the standard of the quality we should expect. But our indiscipline was more to blame.

We should have been able to win in spite of that though, but it was a really really good game and enjoyed it. A bit of controversy is part of the game isn’t it?