Quote: Thelonius "I always thought that the on report system was introduced for those occasions where the officials had a good idea that something had happened but none had actually seen it. To me this introduced a paradox - if an official hadn't seen an offence then how could he give a penalty? If he had seen it then why place a player on report? This 'aid' to the officials is now clearly abused as seen by Silverwood on Friday. He saw clearly what Lauaki had done (the spear) proved by his talking to and commenting on Blythe landing on his back.
In the same way referees are now abusing the 'pass the ball after held is called'. We have already seen players sent back when they got up and ran after clearly being tackled - not what the rule was introduced for.
On the basis that every minute of every Super League game is reviewed anyway I would say the on report system is now completely redundant and should be scrapped.'"
I can understand it being useful where you've got an altercation and players have run in to get involved. Even though the ref has seen the incident it's very difficult to know exactly who was involved and to what extent.
What really annoys me about this is the lack of consistency being shown. After the fuss about Tommy Lee not being sent off for trying to decapitate Briers, Silverwood sent Moa off in the game the following night for an incident that wasn't nearly as bad. If that was because of the fuss generated by the Lee incident then they've obviously got very short memories. If it was because Rinaldi (?) was actually injured then it's a bit like locking the door when the horse is bolted. Cards should be used to punish dangerous play whether someone gets injured or not.
Are Wigan really going to suffer from Lauaki being banned? No.