Gerrum onside Kendall

Very frustrating in-game and video officiating but that aside (and it’s taken me a few hours to put it aside!) the lads played their gonads off. Despite the constant offside, slowing of the play the ball etc, etc, we never gave up and we defended like our life depended on it in the first half and were the better team in the second half.
We didn’t get the 2 points but put the so called in form current champs through the wringer.
This team is not done yet folks, hang on to your hankies, they may just get us crying again !

oh ye of little faith

game of the season that with a bit better game management rub of the green from a poor referee just a couple less handling errors we would have won

some sly play from stains players i though was better than that

All the 50/50’s went against us i.e.:-
1) Forward pass on the last pass for first Makinson try (I was right in line)
2) Percival not even given 10 minutes for vicious head tackle on Amone
3) Although Mellor might have just touched the Saints pass for the disallowed, why did they get the put in afterwards? Bell clearly lost the ball in a loose carry (shades of Wembley, same ref).It should have been our put in 30 yards out.
4) For the last Saints try Bell loses the ball into Leigh players. Scrum to Leigh??
Considering all this what a performance?

How can a referee just not bother with forward passes, high tackles and offsides. Have seen it a few times this year ref’s ignore one of these but not all. Great performance if Briscoe try would have stood think we would have won. Considering no Asiata and Charnley bodes well for play offs. Hoping for home tie in first round.

Well played Leigh last night. Belting game and i thought you were hard done by. To my eyes, 2 forward passes in that first saints try.
You were least as good as them and on a different day that scoreline would be reversed. I thought you looked more dangerous in attack throughout as your attacking systems looked better than saints' did.

Huge congratulations on this incredible season for you guys and there's still plenty more to look forward to.

Ok. After watching that and coming down a bit now. Firstly we should have gone for goal at six a piece instead of reps king scrum and cocking it up, they wouldn’t have got the ball and gone on to score. Bell is worse than Asiata at diving in. The knock on by Mellor, he may have touched the ball however they still catch the ball and carry on so would just restart the tackle count, after that it’s play on and if they lose the ball, so be it. The score should have counted. I have seen that happen in NRL and that is what happens. Very unlucky last night, but the boys were awesome.

Can’t kick for goal after a scrum infringement.

Lam said................“But probably the back to back error off the scrum when we could have taken the two points and then to concede the six, it was a key moment.”

Kendal asked if we wanted to take the penalty or repack as they were off side from scrum .

Top performance that wasn't sure before hand if we could get up to play off level after already having an unbelievable season but did we ! Lammy knows we can do it and now so do the players and the fans , cut out the two or three individual errors ( which decide grand finals )be a tad more clinical and even get on the right side of the 50/50s and we are very close to grand final level .

My prediction is that Leigh will now finish 4th and play Hull Kr at home in the playoffs.

Offside
Following a completed tackle, all but two of the defending team (the markers) must retreat at least ten metres from the point at which the tackle is made. This distance is marked by the referee. Following the play-the-ball, defenders are permitted to advance to try to put pressure on the attackers and to reduce the distance they can make with the ball. If a defender who has failed to retreat 10 metres interferes with play, then he will be deemed to have been offside and this will result in a penalty to the attacking team. Equally, if a defender advances too quickly before the ball is played, then this will also result in a penalty to the attackers. When a player kicks the ball, his teammates must be behind him, or they will be called for offside if they interfere with the play. (Wikipedia)

Wigan and Saints advance when the tackled player stands up, not play the ball. Resulting in a tackle on the gain line not as you would expect some where between 10 metres and the gain line. Do this 5 times and jobs a good 'un.
Percival was so far off-side he nearly took the pass to Amone. Instead he decided to clatter him round the head. Thanks Kendall for protecting the players.

Somebody needs to show Wellens a highlights package of James Bell tackles (shoulder charges, and leading with the head) of course he is one-eyed monster and will choose not see what everybody can see. Still hoping for a "Bringing the game into dispute" to land on his animatronic head.

Both teams were identical in their [cough] line speed. Both teams very up for it, both teams consistently offside. Saints held down as we generally dominated the collisions and Leigh chose to flop (And I mean consistently, almost every tackle). So Kendall just chose to ignore it all and it resulted in an absolute ding dong of a game. Kendall had a good game, he could have given a world record number of penalties and six agains and just didn't, which led to one of the best games of the season.

The key decisions in the game were right, but very close to 50:50s and could easily have gone the other way on another night. There was no obvious forward pass in the Makinson try (The Batchelor pass MAY have been forward, but it was very, very close if so), the ball probably was touched for the disallowed try and there was no knock on by Bell for Batchelor's try (It was taken out of his hand by Lam whilst he was still in possession of it).

Percival, whilst comically offside, did not hit Amone high, there was nothing wrong with the tackle other than him being 7 metres offside. They looked at it and the video ref didn't see it needing a card, neither did Kendall, nor did the MRP who never miss a chance to ban a Saints player.

Bell's tackle on Amone was a blockbuster, but hit him in the stomach/hip area. Not a dangerous challenge at all and he did get both arms up as well, hence no action from the MRP despite them looking at it.

Great game and hopefully the playoffs somehow work out so we can have a rematch at Old Trafford. Draw after golden point and Bell and Asiata can have a last man standing bout to decide the winner.