That's what I thought but the rules state a defender has to intentionally ground the ball, he clearly didn't do that.

These are the rules:-

Law 21.1 
The ball can be grounded in in-goal:
by holding it and touching the ground with it; or,
by pressing down on it with a hand or hands, arm or arms, or the front of the player’s body from waist to neck.

That's for attacking players. Defenders have to ground it with their hands. It was a great call under a ton of pressure. 

I thought the ref had a great game.
There were lots of arms going up for head contact when it was literally a glance of a shirt sleeve and he kept his nerve.
The try was a try for me.
The defender was fumbling over it and simply fell across it. There was no intention to ground it with body. I'm not sure it would have been grounded even if he'd done that with his hand.


Very exciting finish. Wasn't sure Rovers were going to do it but while they were in the grind at 6-2 it was always possible.

The clause I have quoted doesn`t differentiate between attacking or defending players.  There isn`t any other specific rule.

So it wasn`t a great call by the ref at all.  Just a demonstration of his lack of knowledge of the rules.

Law 21.1 
The ball can be grounded in in-goal:
by holding it and touching the ground with it; or,
by pressing down on it with a hand or hands, arm or arms, or the front of the player’s body from waist to neck.

That’s why context is so important. Because you’ve left off the last and crucial part of that sentence: ‘for the attacking team’.


Either you’ve done that on purpose or copied it from another angry fan. But perhaps most crucially, you’ve quoted a clause from the rules of Rugby Union.

In League: A goal line drop out is awarded if a defending player touches down in the in goal area. Touch down is the intentional grounding of the ball by a defending player in their own in goal area. In any case, this is (sic) separate from the law that covers scoring a try which relates to the ball can be grounded by an attacker with the torso if it is already on the ground.”

The torso rule also applies while the ball is under control.
So if you are holding it at the side, not pressing down but holding it to your body, downward pressure from chest applies.


Making a dry dive on a bouncing ball with your arms outstretched isn't the same thing.


Either way it touched his hand and hit his body, it would still have been a knock on even facing his own posts.


It was a try. Lindop needed to clear the ball with confidence and unfortunately he didn't.

Quite apart from the result, the biggest disappointment to me was the the size of the crowd.
HKR and Warrington are both well supported clubs, and there were other finals taking place as well. 
I believe the gate was just over 63k!
Just my personal opinion but the magic of the challenge cup final at Wembley seems to have lost its magic to thousands of people.
I'd prefer it played in a full Old Trafford.
Doesn't look good on tv with huge unpopulated areas!

Totally agree on the attendance 1315, and the reason, but not the solution. My wife (who barely watches) didn’t understand why there were empty seats at a final, and it was a bit embarrassing explaining why.


I could’ve gone, and usually do, but didn’t. Main reason is because I’ll be going back to Wembley for the ashes in November, and I imagine that was on the mind of a lot of neutral/England fans.


I don’t think any two clubs could sell it out now. Wigan and Leeds obviously the most likely, but even then… 


Obviously back in the day the cup was the ultimate accomplishment. But I’m in my mid 30s, and I don’t understand why the cup final ever sold out. You have to play 4 games to get there, and 2 are usually walkovers if you’re an SL club. 


But I don’t think the solution is Old Trafford. You’d have the same issue with getting neutral fans to go to two big games at the same stadium, so both events end up being cannibalised. And it would consign us to being viewed as a strictly northern sport.


It’s hard because there’s not a load of money about, but I’d love to see cup final day being turned into a big party day with all the tradition baked in. DJs, stages outside, maybe a big halftime act, anything you can do to make it something fair weather fans would have to attend. Bit like Union 7s, NFL or NRL in Las Vegas.