Quote: wiganermike "Re-watch the game if you can. Bentham was typically (not always but on most occasions) standing 12 metres back from where the play the balls were occurring (many refs do this - probably to get a better view of the defensive line - a ref doesn't have to stand 10m back from the play the ball so is no indication of where the players need to stand- the lines on the pitch give an indication of that). Yes players were in front of him but were not usually more than two metres in front of him (so were still onside). A defensive player doesn't need to be in line with the ref to be onside. They just need to be 10m from the play the ball. Similarly it doesn't matter if they were stood in an offside position but don't attempt to impact with the attacking team or the ball before retreating to be 10m away first. Many people were baying "offside" repeatedly when there was no infringement. There were some offside players not spotted but not nearly so many as a proportion of the crowd thought there were.'"
I understand what your saying but watch the NRL the games are fair more entertainig because the aussies practice a good 10m and they only move in to tackle when the dummy half picks ups the ball, in this country its 7m and the tacklers move in when the player presents the ball to the ground. Other than that the play where saints were defending their line, you know the rule - two feet behind the line - non existent, the tackler was 5 m offisite before the dummy half picked up the ball. Also the instance were LMS wasnt stood square and tackled the dummy half before he picked the ball up - went unpunished and 30 seconds later Wigan did the same thing and got penalised. Head high shots went upunished, LMS went in with his elbow thats a 3 match ban. Dont defend Bentham he is undefendable