Lolesi was never judged off side and there was no evidence to clearly show he was so that's a bit of a mute point. However, kr clearly infringed on 2 seperate occasions to deny hudds a try

There was no way Lolesi was onside from the initial kick IMO, unfortunately, for HKR, there wasn’t a camera in the whole ground that picked it up!

The rule has only fairly recently been updated to state you can't tackle any player in the air fielding a kick, it previously stated you could not tackle a defending player in the air and did not state categorically that you could not tackle the attacking player. It does suggest that some coaches might need to re-read the laws of the game though!

The 'no tackling in the air' rule has been in place for years. Several years at least. And regardless, even if it was only introduced 5 minutes before kick-off yesterday, it's still illegal to tackle in the air.

There is no evidence Lolesi was offside. The VR deemed him onside, and bearing in mind VRs are equipped with wider monitors than our TVs and can see a wider panoramic view than than we can, we have to accept the VR can see him on the fringes and he was onside.

There are 2 classic penalty tries. The 1999 NRL Grand Final when Smith was clothes-lined with the ball in his hand just before grounding (funnily enough, against Nathan Brown's St George team), and the 2008 World Cup Final when Hohaia was felled while chasing the ball.
Smith caught a kick over the tryline and was smashed in the head, dropping the ball when hit. He would almost certainly have grounded and scored. Penalty try.
Hohaia was taken out on the tryline with the ball about 2 yards away and bouncing, and other players chasing it down. For me, hard to call it a guaranteed try, but given according to the rules: as in, the referee thinks the try would have been scored.
Last night: Hodgson catches the ball and is travelling over the tryline. There is nothing to say he wouldn't have grounded it WITHOUT INTERFERENCE. Nothing. Fox tackles him - ILLEGALLY - and pushes him into touch, something that wouldn't have happened if he had not interfered.


How anyone - even KR fans - can say Hodgson wouldn't have scored if Fox had not interfered is beyond me.

it's been around since start of superleague at least if not longer.

Case in point, GB v the kiwis in 1998, keith senior catches a bomb and just needs to fall over the line to put the ball down to win the match and probably us the series, henry paul catches him in mid air and puts him into touch, seniors feet never touched the floor before he went over the line, bill harrigan waves it off, cue furore from everyone that actually knows the rules as it was a blatant illegal challenge and the most obvious penalty try ever.

Galea went for the ball in a one on one, end of story, its not his fault Brown lost control.

Wakey got one against us that was wrong, we were winning and it turned the game.

personally i think the hudds player lolesi? was well offside for the initial kick through anyway.

the galea incident was ok, you can't take away the players right to try and prevent a try in that way, he clearly made a play for the ball.

the tackle in the air for me was a penalty, fox could have waited till hodgesons feet hit the ground and then smashed him into touch

For my two-penneth ...

Lolesi offside ... yes.

Galea entitled to go for the ball at the same time as Brown ... yes.

Fox guilty of tackling in the air ... yes.

Penalty try ... no ... you could not be 100% certain a try would have followed (and he appeared to lose control of the ball).

Penalty ... in the situation, yes but in theory it should all have stopped at the Lolesi offside.

As a one eyed biased rovers fan I obviously dont think any were penalty tries. As a long standing fan of the game though there are a couple of things that bother me. What do people expect Fox to do? just stand there watch him catch it let him score, the Galea/Brown it is two men heading for the same point in space should galea just let him walk over. We watch a hard contact sport, it seems that there is a growing movement to take out the contact, Having played this game over 40 years ago & being subject to spear tackles & head shots it is a lot better now but to penalise a player who hits the ball carrying arm & slips up into the face is a farce. Putting a player in a dangerous position is also a farce especialy when they have controlled his fall to prevent hurting the player.Common sense has gone out of the game.What was needed was the game to come down hard on the type of player who went out to deliberatly hurt others but the over protection of the kicker has gone to far, we used to protect against attacking the standing leg which worked OK but if a kicker wants plenty of time to kick stand further back. I suspect that half of the rules now are to prevent clubs & the RFL from facing compensation claims but that is another topic for discussion.

There were other options.
Jump and compete for the ball.
Tackle him once he landed.


I remember a few years ago in a test match when Robbie Paul tackled Keith Senior in the air as Senior caught a kick in the Kiwis in-goal area. It wasn't given as a penalty try, but everyone apart from the ref seemed to think it should have been.

Give the man a coconut !!