Yes this sport we loved is fixed every result is decided before a ball is kicked.

Saints where outstanding second half. If every decision had gone against them they'd probably have still won that game.

They where very good (sadly)

Has there been a rule change around you playing the ball after the ref has shouted held?

Wilkin scored a try after Silverwood let Lance Hohaia go back and play the ball again rather then penalise him as I expected him to do.

And what the hell is that new rule where a defender needs to let the ball bounce over the dead ball line before collecting it or else they'll give a drop out away. Very strange.

They got a few lucky calls but you normally do when you're going forward as they were. Barstewards.

I*m sure i heard Eddie say that there is indeed a new rule in stating that you can now PTB even after the Ref has shouted held...Also the ball bouncing over the dead ball line and been carried out results in a drop out beneath the posts,,must admit,thats a strange one...

Similar to how the NRL works. The ref just usually tells them to go back and play it.

I agree in some instances as it must be tough to hear the ref and stop straight away when there's crowd noise and the like.

Yea the new dead ball rules is utterly stupid, it wasn't broken last year so no need to fix it.

The 'player not hearing the held call' did need looking at but now it's open to interpretation of ref, which mean it's going to wildly inconsistent, so that's still broken.

As for the match, nearly every infringement by saints was missed and Salford got a hard time from Silverwood; however, obviously and expectedly saints were always going to win.

The dead ball thing is stupid, the player taking it out of play is the one any ruling should be against, not a player already out of play. Is this to stop the rare occasion where the ball can be inside the field of play but the catching player puts one foot on the ground before catching, effectively bringing an out of play object in the field? If that's the case I can see the consistency with the corner flag.

In regards to the held & pass rule. Does the same ruling apply to the defenders? Are they now allowed to continue the tackle even after held being called?

The play the ball after being called held happened against Huddersfield last Sunday. We pushed them into touch after the ref shouted held, and this would have been a penalty last year. They just brought the ball back into the field and played the ball, carrying on with the count. Probably one of the best new rules introduced for a long time.

Not sure about the game being fixed, I thought saints played reasonably well 2nd half wit a fair bit of luck on their side. I've got to say though I was impressed with Salford's three quarter line!

Before a player straddling the line was classed as out of play and ball dead..now ball must touch something out of play before being touched by a player..ie advertising hoardings..touchie etc..makes defender try and run ball out rather than just putting one foot over line and getting a tap 20

I can understand the dead ball rule. The ball isn't officially in touch until it has touched either the line or bounced over the line, so it should be no different in the in-goal area.

Spot on.