This may have already been covered, but i couldn't see it anywhere....

Anyhow, Crusaders v Saints last Saturday, Crusaders are in the Saints 20, pressing for a try, a Crusaders player is down, about 15m out from the Saints line and the physio is attending to him. ON the 4th tackle, Crusaders threw the ball out and it hit the physio. This led to a Crusaders scrum. How is this fair?

If Wigan are losing by less than 6 points in the GF, 5 mins to go, should one of our players go down, get attended to by a physio, and if we don't score by the 5th tackle, we can throw the ball at the physio and get another set.

AM i interpreting that right? I had had a few on Saturday as i was at a party, but surely this rule needs changing??

I agree with you, its a stupid rule.

But it went against Saints so no-one cares

No rule changes needed, as I said on the Saints board after the incident, the situation was caused by Silverwood. A guy was down close to the play and he allowed it to continue. Yes I know we want the game to flow and its not soccer, but it was close enough to stop for a few seconds. It could have easily been avoided. The decision to award Crusader another set of 6 was baffling at best. Smarter refereeing is all that is needed.

Yea similar if the ball hits the referee, so if we're on 5th tackle near the line, just chase the referee around the pitch and try kick the ball at him (if it was Bentham, as hard as you could!).

I think its because play has been irregularly effected (by hitting ref/spectator/dog/anything other than a player). The ruling is a scrum with head and ball to the attacking team. The attacking team is judged on where the play is ie if you're not in your own half you are the attacking team. It is a stupid rule but a rule none the less.

Imo if its the 3rd tackle for example, and it hits the ref/physio, just play the ball from where the ref/physio was and start on the 3rd tackle again. Surely the fairest way?

Definitely - in fact the commentary team said the same thing, IIRC.

Iirc its the team with territorial advantage that get the ball. I'm pretty sure deliberately trying to boot the ball at the ref counts as ungentlemanly conduct.

i remember a game this season when wigan where passing the ball and a water carrier from the opposing team was hit by the ball and though it stopped wigans attack nothing was given

not really as they could have scored, the thing is these people shouldnt be in the way

now that i'd pay to see!!