i personaly think the video ref is a waste of time slow's the game down and basically may as well do without the ref as they seem to be unable to make a decission on there own. how many variables can you ask the video ref to make !!! onside offside forward pass , grounding ect ect

No the video ref is a great tool ...... or is it just BENTham that's a tool?

utter b0ll0x....ask bentham to give you a lift when he goes to specsavers today.

boring final poor atmosphere (like everyone had seen it all before) was hoping for plenty of biff and saw nothing!
worst call iv ever seen by the video ref for the last smith try.
And that stupid moving camera angle p'ssed me right off!!!
END OFF

your full of cr@p mate

he should of never been allowed even the leeds fans near us were shocked

What utter tripe, Smith was clearly off side, the only person who failed to realise it was Bentham. To make matters worse, his decision making was totally based on guess work as your explanation clearly states.

I don’t claim to know every single technicality in the RL rule book, but hearing Bentham’s explanation last night left me gobsmaked “Smith was behind the ball” !!! What ever happened to having to be behind the kicker?

If a player was going for a 40-20 and he had a grounded foot inside his teams 40meter zone, but the ball and kicking foot were airborne, but in front of the 40 meter line, it would be his grounded foot that would determine weather it was a 40-20 or not. Similarly, when McGuire put the kick through yesterday, Smith was clearly in front of his grounded foot thus putting him in an offside position. To make matters worse, there was not a single video shot that showed Smith behind the ball as there was a saints player in the way. Through pure guess work and unquestionable incompetence, Bentham got the call wholly wrong.

I would also question why Bentham did not call for the sin bin, maybe even a red card for Webb when he looked at the Gardner no try. Webb clearly led with the knees and was lucky to only have a penalty given against him imo.

Agree. Thought Webb was a dirty little $od all last night and Leeds their usual niggly selves when they were unable to thwart Saints for the best part of the match.

Webb should also have been sin-binned when he attempted to removed Long's head and dreadlocks when he "tackled" him off the ball under Leeds' sticks.

Well.... my heart wanted him to be offside but my head meant I had to understand the rule: "both feet behind the ball as it kicked". I haven't looked the rule up but I think, based upon that explanation, Bentham had every right to call him onside. All we need now is for every video ref to call it in the same way.... hem hem

not a patch on the cold empty galpharm i bet

I'll be the boring fart:

From RFL Rules of the Game:

SECTION 14
OFF SIDE
When off side 1. A player is off side except when he is in his own ingoal
if the ball touches, is touched, held or kicked, by
one of his own team behind him.


Would appear to indicate that the player in offside in relation to his position to his own team member, not the ball.

By that rule - Smith is clearly in front of his man regardless of the ball and is, indeed OFFSIDE.

Shame the final had to be decided on such a controversial passage of play. First the alleged playing at the ball when it was kicked and another set of 6 was awarded. To me it seemed as though the player turned his back on the ball and the ball played him rather than vice versa.
Then the offside decision, from every angle i saw it looked offside.

Saints made too many silly mistakes and were the masters of their own downfall