What an absolute joke. 100% an accident. Glad we are in the championship where there's no replays or reviews by video refs.

Possibly one of the worst decisions I’ve seen. It’s not like rugby league to make a complete shambles of new rules being introduced and implemented ….

I can’t blame the officials or the RFL for this mess.

I blame the money scrounging ex players who started all this.

Prior to the red card I thought the officials were struggling…
the head tackle that stopped a Hull try…several occasions not calling held even though both attacking and defending players were adding weight to the tackle (ending up like a maul)… the Hull fullback grounding the ball on the try line whips trying to clear the in-goal area… but allowed to play on.

Even in the set leading to the farcical red card had several incidents of contact to the head.

The new rules just added complexity to a team of officials already struggling to referee a top class sporting event. Whilst I felt for them.. there is no place for such incompetence.

Having watched all the games so far… my excitement has dissipated… there’s no flourish to the games (with odd exceptions) players seem tentative and unsure.. the game is slower… there seems less energy and desire… and the gladiatorial collisions seem weak spectres of the real sport I fell in love with!

Every game so far in SL this season seems less of a spectacle than previous encounters… and with every red card the nervousness increases…

It was so dissapointing… almost heartbreaking!

Let’s not forget we have very heavy pitches due to the amount of rain. The game always start slow but improves with the harder surfaces. It will be interesting how Penrith cope with these conditions.

I’ve enjoyed the games, and there’s nothing exciting about a tackle around the shoulders, but that was a farce.

The solution is so simple: accidental contact is play on. Contact through negligence is a penalty. Contact through recklessness is yellow or red depending on the amount of force used. Intentional is red.

They’ve massively over-complicated it.

But accidental contact can’t be anything other than a mitigating factor, but if you over-mechanise the decision-making process, the whole game becomes about refereeing it rather than playing it. The penalty try decision was 20 seconds longer than it had to be because Liam Moore felt the urge to explain it.

I agree with you Slugger
Except.......those words you use are open to interpretation, which is what is going wrong.

Terrible call and it destroyed any chance of Hull being able to win the game.
There's a lot of talk about the need for a players union but, that wont end well.
Anyone and everyone (apart from last night's officials, can see that it's the wrong call.

We should be talking about the game, not the officials but, the way things are going, there will be a players union set up
and a player strike, which will cause significant harm to the game.

No players have actually talked about a strike. That's just a media thing.

They are employed by the club not the RFL so it's pretty pointless anyway.
A union or player rep to discuss would be fine but if its needed it means the clubs aren't representing their players properly.

All we need to talk about is refining the interpretation of the rules. The rules themselves are fine.
Don't hit people in the head. Simple rule.

Stupid decision, bit this is all on Fozzard, Goulding and the rest that are involved in the lawsuit!

The rules indicate that it is deemed to be high level of force if the contact is by head or shoulder.

I get the shoulder bit, but accidental head collisions should not be penalised.

They just need to tweak it to say that if the contact is deemed to be accidental, it is the same sanction as that those that start with the shoulder and move up. The rules were applied correctly. The rules are the problem, as they probably had in mind people leading with the head, and perhaps it took last night for the problem to be realised. They will hopefully deal with it.

As for a players union, you’ll get it taken over by agenda-driven people. Look what Clint Newton did in the NRL last year.

But the problem will be inconsistency. If Nathan Cleary accidentally clashes his head against a Wigan player later, is there a prospect of him being sent off? The answer is no, not a chance.

Common sense has finally prevailed.... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/68405490

Common sense has finally prevailed.... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/68405490