I remember Sinfield asking a referee to give him time to speak to his team before restarting play, but I can't remember other captains picking up the obvious advantages in doing that.

Have you watched the NRL lately? It's turned into British bulldog.

Regards

King James

Cronulla and Brisbane will probably be happy to have got some pretty high intensity run outs before their season starts. We should try and organise something like our top three going over there to play next time. All our teams would be delighted to get the chance to go over and I'm sure pretty much all the Aussie teams would be delighted to play us over there.

I agree about the grounding of the ball but I was with Barrie Mc and my first thought was it had brushed the forearm of his left arm.

Their second disallowed try was a tough 50/50 call. If it had gone up as a try it would have been given as there wasn't enough evidence either way. Sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't. Course, if he'd have caught it clean and grounded it clearly in the field of play there would have been no need for the VR. If you're gonna drop it and ground it on the touch line you can't really complain if you don't get the 50/50 call.

Not sure what you're problem is with the last try. In this case even though it went up as no try there was clear video evidence to overrule it. You can't really argue with the lines on the pitch. Footage showed Burgess [iwas[/i onside and that he [idid[/i ground it. The VR has no choice but to give it.

Seems the Sharkies coach wasn't happy with the referee. He's looking forward to getting back to the 2 ref, sterilised, holding down, slow game they play over there.

There has been a large drop off of crowds in the NRL over recent years, and they wonder why.

I'm not on my own then.

I watched it last night and one angle seemed to show the ball hitting the inside of his left arm as he jumped but they only gave the video ref one shot of it and proceeded to show numerous replays from other angles which were giving him nothing.

The ball being on the line was 50/50. Nobody can say for sure either way and as it went up as a no try it clearly had to stand as that.

The game is much cleaner around the ruck, the game is much quicker and the refs are a million times more strict with loose ball and knock ons in the NRL.

But Flanagan is a sore loser like all Aussies. They had a couple of poor calls but nothing of game changing substance. Wigan weren't at their best but the best team won without a doubt.

Congratulations to both Wigan and Warrington both deserved their victories and they did themselves and SL proud.

Wigan were very good defensively yesterday - the Sharks were very rusty in attack, but Wigan just didn't let them play. I can't understand why the Sharks were going sidewards so much - with their pack, they should have just steam rolled Wigan around the ruck. Wigan played exactly the right sort of game plan to win and it worked a treat. Pains me to say it, but well done Shaun Wane.

The officiating was awful - the obvious try/no try decisions were one thing, but the inconsistent policing of the ruck and non-policing of offside certainly helped Wigans cause. There were times in that last 20 where Hicks only took Wigan back about 5 or 6 meters, and then when in their own 20 the Sharks got a couple of quick plays and the whole defensive line were about 3 meters in front of Hicks and no penalty. It was almost as if he was allowing offside as a counter balance to a quick PTB.