: Mon Aug 03, 2009 4:35 pm
nathanwood7 wrote:
Anyone talking about offside being the reason for the disallowed try is talking nonesense and it is completely different to the Webb incident earlier in the season for many reasons, e.g. Clarke was behind the play the ball not in front, and Clarke didn't receive the ball.
You can clearly hear Ian Smith say on the microphone that it was because Clarke used his right arm to block Diskin. In my opinion it was an awful decision which rewarded a poor read in defence.
On the other hand the Webb no try was also a doubtful call though slightly harder to call.
I can not speak for the official reason because I don't know and unless it is the ref's report to the RFL then we will never know. My impression that I thought the ref had disallowed the try for offside was formed after looking at the replay on the big screen on the night. When I watched the game back, irrespective of what the three Sky stooges had to say, Clarke put himself in an offside position just as the ball was being played as he was not clearly behind the acting half-back (I think he was level with the man playing the ball... which is offside). You might think differently, but I think you would be wrong... watch it again and tell me he was clearly behind the acting half-back???
On Smith asking, he could well have sent it to BT thinking it was an obstruction and BT seeing that he was offside, had drawn a poor read (that we agree on) from Diskin and the fact that he stopped and did not carry on his dummy run meant that BT said no try.
Of course BT had set his stall out to be harsh after the Smith jump/Webb try and he might have just been thinking it was an obstruction and that was that... but my gut is telling me it was for offside.
