Quote ="AndreaB"we got away with a knock on just before one of our tries I reckon. There was a forward pass in the run-up to a Wigan team and the off-sides were awful. I don't think the ref changed the result though and I'm surprised anyone thought the wind was that strong. No more than a stiff breeze really.'"
There are forward passes in every game which no-one seems to care about (especially the officials), maybe it's the 'let's keep the game moving' mantra which seems to prevail. I'm not going to knock Bentham for the odd miss, as you say, it went both ways and didn't affect the result (in a tight game as well!) and anybody can make a mistake.
What I did notice about the PTBs was that he seemed to go a metre or so beyond the ten, which meant that anyone standing slightly in front would have actually been ON-side, again this was the same for both teams. This used to be common practice at one time but not so much now. He did give an odd 'not square' decision (against Wigan) which surprised me because the refs in general don't seem to be applying that rule these days.
I didn't think the wind was strong (from my seat in the stand!!) but on TV the flags were well stretched out. I think the clincher though has to be the kicking performances of the respective teams in each half, where both got much more distance when kicking towards the Coral Stand.
