Quote meast="meast"Anyone see the incident in the Catalans-Widnes game?
Catalans were penalised at the PTB, because, Mounis, i think had just completed the tackle but got trapped between the tackled player and the dummy half, he couldn't get out of the way but basically froze so as not to interfere with the PTB, but then the Widnes player, i can't remember who, just threw the ball at him and it was given as a penalty.
This isn't the first time i've seen it, Wigan have done it a few times and Henderson while he was at Catalans was a master of it, but my issue with this " offence" is that
A:the defender can't just disappear after making the tackle, yes he should clear the ruck, but if he had tried to do that, he would have no doubt conceded a penalty for not clearing the ruck quick enough, so he basically stood, or knelt still, not playing any part in the game. what is the defender supposed to do in this situation?
B:the referee should have a bit of understanding, knowing that the defender isn't trying to interfere and that he just got caught out positionally.
C: if anything the dummy half should be penalised for gamesmanship. He could have easily passed round Mounis, or just over him, but he deliberatly threw the ball at him, if you do that in other parts of the field it's a penalty, so why not in this instance?
To me it's just another case of pandering to the attacking team, who seem to get the benefit of everything at the moment.'"
Maybe the defender should worry less about wrestling the tackled player and more about getting out of the ruck in good order - then there wouldn't be any risk of interfering with the subsequent ptb?
