At one point in the game (2nd half, I think) we knocked on and Cas had a free play. This continued until it appeared that the ref said Cas had pushed a Leeds player off the ball, at which point he brought it back and gave Cas a play the ball.

Surely if it's a foul, it should negate the advantage and result in a penalty?

This isn't sour grapes, I am merely curious.

Yup I thought exactly the same thing - surely a foul over-rules the advantage. That one I just didn't understand.

As I understand it the rule is that you have advantage until the end of the tackle. Not sure what happens if you infringe at the ptb or do serious foul play, as in theory you could go punch someone and not give away the penalty.

I was going to post the same question. It was indeed a Leeds knock-on & then the ball was hacked forward (not sure if deliberately or accidentally) by Cas in the advantage free play and, as Keinhorst & a Cas player raced to pick up the loose ball, he was pushed in the back, off the ball, as he was going to and did get to the ball first. The ref even appeared to signal that he had been pushed off the ball but still brought the play back for the Cas head & feed! I would hope that if this hasn't been made clear to ref's, that any foul play committed during an advantage free play, by either side, will stop the advantage & a penalty awarded. If not, it could get rather silly, in this case it was just a push, but it clealy was a deliberate effort to stop Keinhorst getting to the ball first (which was odd given Cas would still get the ball back at the scrum anyway) and IMO, the ref should have called an end to the advantage & either let Leeds play-on, as Keinhorst did get the ball, or awarded a penalty. Equally, this must apply to the side now defending at a free play. If you know the ref is just going to bring back play if the advantage is not realised, you might as well deliberately foul a player to allow you to organise your defence at the following scrum.

Again, not bitter either because it didn't have any bearing on the result, but this should be cleared up, if not already.

To be honest new rule or no new role Tim Roby didn't have a clue. The game changer for me was at 12-10 to Leeds Sinny kicked for field position on the fourth tackle and it was touched in flight by a Cas player making the ball live, the ball only went 30 yards down field and Ablett followed up and tackled the Cas player on their 20. Roby gave Ablett offside and they punted the resulting penalty into our half and gained another penalty (which I have no despute with the high shot that earned it) from which they equalised.
With over 3 minutes left when we were penalised again and they were presented their final winning kick he also allowed them to waste so much time before stopping the clock at 48 seconds which meant there was only 15 seconds left when we kicked off. I don't blame the Cas player for taking his time and I realise they are allowed a period of time to take the kick but Roby should have noticed what he was doing and stopped it earlier for me.
Anyway all that said well played Cas

I was thinkin the same at the game. For me as soon as Cas took the option to punt the ball down field they had taken tvantage and the ball was back in general play. saw it they were happy to punt the ball thus happy to take the advantage at that stage.

I think Roby needs to go back on the wings he isn't ready for authority

Yep, Leeds got a team warning then committed 4 further penalties without a sin binning.



He was offside when the ball was originally kicked, that is why it was a penalty.



The rule is you're allowed to run a minute off the clock before the ref is allowed to stop it so you're now blaming Roby for following the rules.



But the new rule this year is after a knock on you get a "free play" until the completion of the next tackle so you will see a lot, if not all, teams punting the ball down field after a knock on because if it comes off you have great field position, if not you get the scrum.

The Cas player didnt "touch the ball in flight". The ball was kicked into his back as he was stood still so the ball was not deemed live. He didn't make a play at the ball and it is the same as if it hadn't touched him at all. The same way you still get head and feed at a scrum if the ball goes into touch after hitting you accidentally.

As for the next point you make, I looked at the stadium clock just after the penalty and it said 1:47. You get 1 minute before the clock stops, regardless of how much it looks like you are time wasting. Roby got both these spot on and although he got a few things wrong during the game, he wasn't the cause of our loss. We were.

Wow, that took me 5 minutes to write?

Are we trying to mimic Union where advantage seems to last for about 7 minutes?

Why do we tinker with rules that make the job for people in the middle even more difficult year after year?

Quite. And year-on-year the lament is heard around the grounds about this ref, that ref, the other ref, bloody all of 'em being rubbish. I say blame the legislators, not the police.
I've even more sympathy for referees this season given what they've been given to wear.