Quote lefty goldblatt="lefty goldblatt"I'll give you a clue.
I've been watching RL for 40+ years.
In all that time I've watched RL, a charge down occurs, when the "charger" is in extreme close proximity to the kicker, anything else is
a) stopping the kicked ball going a lot further
b) a genuine attempt to INTERCEPT/CATCH the ball
Now, bearing in mind, I don't watch half time or full time punditry (Jon Wells is a collosal whopper), I can only rely I what I remember from the actual coverage. The Wigan player WAS NOT in extreme close proximity (as would be seen for any normal charge down), therefore, it's either one of examples a or b, as mentioned earlier.
Now, bear in mind (again, iirc) the Wigan player handled the ball at waist height or lower, even the most one-eyed resident of Poolstock Lane must admit that it's hardly "rising", when he's a number of feet/metres away.
I hope that's cleared it up for you'"
I've been watching TV for 30 years, I still couldn't tell you how it works. I think you're getting mixed up with 'not played at', which is something else entirely. If the defender is in extreme proximity to the kicker, the chances are he won't have the time to play at it. It'll whack him, not played at, tackle count continues if the kicking team get it, if the defending team pick it up then it's tackle 1. Clearly he did play at this one (all charge downs are when the ball is played at).
It's pretty rare that the highest point a kick gets to is waist height, surely it's a fair assumption that it would have continued to rise had he not stopped it with his hand/arm. So we combine played at + rising ball = charge down. Doesn't matter that it went forwards, how far away he was or where he stuck his arm.
I'm genuinely not trolling and have complimented Wire's performance in this thread. Prior to Hill going off I thought you were going to beat us. I'm just trying to explain a misunderstood rule, but I think at this point some fans are determined not to understand because it's easier to just blame the ref.
