Indeed. You could clearly see him lining up a perfect punch to the chin as he hurtled in at full pelt from the wing to try and prevent a try. What a great shot to hit him just where he wanted.
It was an accident. Tomkins landed badly. On report at most.

But still it was Golden Boy wasn't it. So red it had to be.

Can't better that. Pretty well what I would have said.

Briggs had a very good game - and got us out of jail several times. Royston - excellent acquisition. Says something when two of probably the best three players in a Bulls shirt are from the Championship? Langley led by example - shows how much we missed him. Platty for England! I do not think Raynor's action was at all deliberate, but it probably went some way beyond careless and probably counted as reckless. Even so, it would be nice to think the same rules applied all the time everywhere else. Unfortunately it always seems to be us, doesn't it?

Can only be very proud of the lads today. Best effort we've seen at Odsal for ages now. Guts and determination. Please, please now let the lads see this as a big confidence booster? They CAN do it. They CAN defend - defended like their lives depended on it today. When they had possession and some space they looked very dangerous. If not for that bit of madness start of second half, we could have taken it. No reason now for them not to build on that confidence. And with players to come back, the playoffs are far from out of reach.

Agree with all of that. Am I also allowed to suggest Jeffries might actually have given us a little bit of direction that's been missing?

Proud, very, very proud! I aren't going to pass too much judgement on the sending off except, asking the VR to watch it in slow motion doesn't do the decision any justice IMO. It should have just been played in full speed. Considering the referee, I could see why it was a red card, but Raynor was trying to make a save and got it wrong. Punishable by a red card? Debatable. I asked Potter when he was walking down at half-time what he thought about the red card, and he shook his head and laughed!

As for the game, Briggs and Jeffries have to be kept together for the forseeable future. They don't deserve to be dropped, and there is a flickering of a partnership starting to develop, so stick with them. Langley makes Bradford performances tenfold better, and Elima added a bit of steel to the edge defence, so plenty of positives. Disheartened to be out of the cup, the odd decision t'other way or the odd bit of luck and we'd have pulled off a shock and a half! Playing with 12 men for 50 mintues wasn't evident at times.

COYB!

I am rightly now looking forward to all accidental high shots getting penalised with a red card. After all consistency is what its all about.

Surely we can't screw up next week against salford after today.

Great performance, same result. Repeat that performance and you will win a lot more than you lose.

Raynor cost us any chance of a win. I respect plenty will disagree but it was over as soon as he sent his marching orders. At moment I am too disappointed with result to really appreciate the effort.

Are you for real?

So you agree that all accidental high shots should be red cards then?

You are. Since that is exactly what I said to those around me at the match.

FA, surprised you praise us for cutting the unforced errors. Personally thought the game was lost in the second and third quarters where we repeatedly turned over possession.

He did indeed land badly. Having being knocked out the bloke slid unconscious on his face!!! Sliding on his face didn't cause him to lose consciousness, a swinging arm did.

Yeah we can all agree that Raynor had no intention of hurting Tomkins but for me there was the technology on site to make the correct call of a straight red. On-report would have been a nonsense. Swinging your arm into the chops of someone by accident doesn't negate a sending off, all it does is offer plausible mitigation when the RFL summon Gareth to explain.

The phrase "reckless" which I believe forms part of certain RFL charges, surely encompases plenty of incidents where a player didn't set out to hurt someone but pepetrated a punishable act nontheless.

It was a swinging arm with a closed fist to the jaw of a player scoring a try. A LOT different to someone copping one on the nose driving it in. Ganson made the correct call - deal with it. Most of your fellow fans are.

So in game at Halifax why didnt the chap who forearmed Andy Lynch in the chops quite obviously with intent did not even get 10 mins in the bin. Inconsistant! In my opinion the fact that he was knocked out should have had no bearing on the punishment. Surly with intent should be punished more harshly than accidental.