Does anyone else think like me and believe that if there is any amount of doubt in a decision the VR has to make, he has been advised to take the controversial one? Maybe to add more publicity to the game, good or bad?

That try in the GF was offside no doubts and no arguments, the decision by Bentham was a disgrace, its not a first and certainly wont be the last. Its becoming beyond a joke

Wasn't ar$ed about the result, it just upsets me that our game can be shown up in this way.

A terrible dicision that tonight by the video ref you clearly see he is infront of the kicker. he needs to go to an opticiaion for stronger lenses or demoted to national league 2 for that tonight even ganson looked bemused by the decision. to make a call like that on a game of some importance mars a great game of rugby. I feel for sts fans.

[quote="neil72"]even ganson looked bemused by the decision. . quote]
didn't see how he looked myself....but by that statement, why did he go to the VR ? fwiw it was offside....and for me Bentham has been the stand out dodgy ref all season

Couldn't agree more, the rules state;

Only players who were behind the kicker at the time they kicked the ball may interfere with the ball, i.e. a player can not kick the ball forwards to another player in order to gain ground.

Now, I believe it has to be both feet behind the kicker and I'm not sure Smith had one behind the kicker never mind two, the decision was a joke. However I don't think Saints would have gone on and scored after that anyway but in RL it only takes one mistake or one piece of brilliance to change a game and who knows?

it was a poor decition by the video ref which changed the game, we have been on the recieving end of simular incidents in the past and been done too.

Good to see the referee defenders are out tonite in force perhaps they only cum out if its against us

Like you have said, it was a shocking decision. How he tried to justify the decision by saying both of smiths feet were behind the ball when it was kicked was a joke!

Saints lost because of two mistakes by Meli and a bigger mistake by the Video Ref.

And they got beat by a better team

I was there so didn't see what was said on TV, but thought that it was off side as soon as I saw it.

Also, the one where Eastmond was tackled in to touch and a 20m restart was given - did he not touch the line before the flag?

And another point on the video refs - if I can see that Eastmond's and Disckin's were tries straight away from the tier2 quadrant, why the hell does Ganson need to get someone else to make decisions?

from on the tv it was hard to say if eastmond touch the whitewash, i didn't think he did but from one angle it looked like he might of done, another looked like he didn't.