the shape of the figure 9 isn't even remotely the same and the thumb position on the balls isn't identical either... it's a fecking sham and a cover up..the RFL are a disgrace to the supporters/teams for their cover up of an honest mistake by Murphy in the first instance..

Any mistake made was by Schofield not Murphy. Schofield drew the ball for the away team to play at Salford and called it as 9 meaning Widnes were away at Salford. Murphy then drew the 6 ball out next to decide the home team in the next tie in the draw. If the 6 and 9 were incorrectly called then it was Schofield that made the error and with 9 already having been called by Schofield, Murphy would have only been able to call the ball he drew as a 6.

Did you actually watch the draw? You have twice posted about the two balls in question being drawn in the wrong order.

It is, though. If you compare the images after correcting for screen distortion there is no evidence that they are different.

What I did was firstly adjust the colour balance on the RFL image, which was heavily tinged with yellow. I worked on the assumption that the paper behind the ball would have been white in colour and adjusted from there. By doing that, it is clear that the "RFL" ball is of very similar colours to the "screen grab" ball.

I then took the screen grab and adjusted it so that t appears from a flat perspective, and not "tilted". This is not too difficult, because there are words and columns on the screen, and so you only have to skew it until the text and columns appear normal and level. By doing this, it is clear that the screen ball appears to be of identical dimensions to the "RFL" ball.

Next I superimposed the two balls and finally by sequentially altering the opacity of the "screen grab" ball and positioning it directly over the "RFL" ball, I made a number of images. So the top one is all RFL ball and zero screen ball; the bottom one is all screen ball, completely obscuring the RFL ball, and the rest are graduated stages in between.

By sliding the opacity I can't see any material difference in the balls and on this evidence I can't point to anything that seems evidence of different balls.

Have I seen you on CSI?

Not yet, but I think the RFL, if they were going to bother with an image at all, might at least have used somebody who had the first idea how to take one!

Unless my eyes are wonky, even after you've 'flattened' the ball, the '9's still look different from the first & last photos on your slide. The bottom tail of the digit doesn't look similiar at all.

I was commenting on the shots as a whole. Obviously they aren't identical but I wouldn't expect them to be given one is a distorted screen grab from a pixellated TV screen and the top and bottom areas seem to be distorted by the joins in the "panels" of the ball; they are not at the same angle; and they are taken in completely different lighting conditions.

At first I wondered why the underline seemed to be absent from the TV grab, but it in fact actually seems to be obscured by the "next panel", but on close examination a dark blue shape in the correct spot can be made out.

Don't forget in both cases you are looking through the ball onto the back surface. I don't know why the balls were made that way but they were.

All I was looking for was whether I could find any evidence that might support a "different ball theory" and if I had, I would have posted that too, I didn't and don't have any agenda here and am no fan of the RFL, but I personally can't find any such evidence on the limited materials available.

Oh and I'm bored with this thread now so won't be posting any more.

And the missing dot next to the 9?

I don't have a clue if the draw was messed up or not, the evidence is completely inconclusive; the balls the RFL later posted a picture of do seem to be different than the ones used for the draw, that was a silly move on their part.

Which begs the question, where would they get another set from so quickly? And why not use them in the first place if they're clearer?

They weren't aesthetic enough to be shown on TV? #RFLsense