Quote morrisseyisawire="morrisseyisawire"Certainly three big officiating mistakes were made, and the Makinson one was very significant so I can understand Catalans annoyance; they do seem to get a rum deal from refs but then with the Tomkins brothers and McClorum in your ranks that's not suprising.
I was very suprised Moore got the gig though; I don't think he's biased as such, just hugely incompetent even by SL refereeing standards.'"
What three big mistakes were they? The Makinson decision was correct, sent up correctly by Moore. They have to be certain that he would have scored if Makinson doesn't foul him, not if Makinson isn't there. There is clearly plenty of doubt about that, so it's completely the correct decision. The yellow card for Makinson is the controversial bit there, his challenge contacts the elbow and it slides up to become a grab. There was an absolutely identical tackle by a Catalans player a few minutes after that didn't have the drama of a potential try and no yellow was given.
The other one people are clutching at is the incorrect play the ball penalty against Tomkins in the 78th minute, with claims it should have been a penalty to Sam instead. Again, completely the correct decision. Batchelor does impede him clearly, holding his head between his legs. That would have been a six again to Catalans (not a penalty) had Tomkins stood up and played the ball correctly. Instead he played it with his head about a foot off the floor and stepped over it. Harsh on Tomkins maybe, but definitely the right decision. A calmer, more controlled player would have stood up, moaned at Batchelor and got Moore waving his arm for six again.
The Coote foot in touch one does look farcical when you see the replay. But no one called that in the stadium, the Catalan fanatic neutrals near me didn't claim for it, the Catalans fans it was very close to didn't and even Maloney didn't spot it. Quite how I'm not sure but I'm going to go with the angled edges to the pitch at OT deceiving the eye. But that one I would have been raging about if it were against Saints, the touch judge has to see that. But it didn't decide the game, it's not like we scored from that play.
The supposed red card for Mata'utia was also a non issue. It was retaliation to exactly the same thing being done to him, so there would have been two cards being shown, not just him. It was in back play and Moore can't see that and keep up with play, so another one that is on the video ref. There were three high shots by Catalans players that would have been obvious yellows in the semi finals and I suspect that's what McManus and the Saints fans would have raged about had Catalans won it. That tells me it was just a tight Grand Final, you always get minor errors by officials both ways.
