Quote: I_Pitty_Stevo "Erm... not at all convinced by that having watched the replay repeatedly. Not that it matters. He was laid out full length on his back, and so couldn’t have quickly moved anywhere. And following that tackle there were no protests, which there would have been had he been in touch. He seemed to have been arguing that Ryan was in touch, which he wasn’t, but with the game in tha balance not surprising that he tried to get the try disallowed.'"
Stiil can't see how Ryan got through the gap - it can't have been wider than 12 inches. The film of the try is from behind play, and Ryan certainly lies across the touchline. However, what the replay doesn't show clearly, is when he grounded the ball. Both the ref and tj were right there, and had the best view. (apart from perhaps Richardson
) It certainly looks like Pownall wasn't in touch when he fielded the penalty kick - leading to his stupid outburst. So, would Bradford have scored, had the tj not put his flag up? Maybe not from that particular play, but they undoubtedly had the momentum at that stage, and a score looked on the cards. Ifs, buts, and maybe's eh?! It definitely said, on the media (including Leigh website and Leigh Centurions twitter
) that Ryan had scored, so, officially, he did.
In the end, the scoreline was decisive - and deservedly so - but wouldn't life be boring if we didn't have 'talking points', especially those about match officials?!