Wow it looks like there are just as many knob jockeys on here as there are posting on the couriermail, foxsports, etc.
First of all if there is anyone who actually thinks that the Titans were robbed of victory or that the refs were 'on the take' or that the NRL are triyng to rig these matches for the Broncos to win the title then you deserve a few shots to the chin. There's no conspiracy or match fixing going on here and the better team clearly won the match.
Of the 6 'contentious' decsions I'm going to list them down and how each decision should've gone.
1/ Penalty Try to Kahu: I don't really understand why this one is being debated. The rules are pretty clear in this instance in that you are not allowed to kick the ball out of the hands of a player in the motion of scoring a try. That's exactly what Konrad Hurrell did so the ref had no choice to award a penalty try. Correct decision. You may not like the rule but that is a completely different issue.
2/ Double knock-on call, scrum feed to the Broncos. Again, you may not like that the bunker can be asked to adjudicate on this however the on field ref clearly asked the bunker to check who knocked on first. The replays were very clear that Pulu knocked on first. Correct decision.
3/ Roberts ruck incident. I've called it this because I refuse to call that love tap a kick. However, because the referee deemed the interference in the ruck by the Titans player acceptable (even though it clearly wasn't) Roberts should have been penalised. The most disappointig thing about this is if it had've been penalised on the night then I very much doubt that Roberts gets charged as the NRL are trying to right a wrong. Incorrect decision.
4/ Oates penalty. The benefit of the replay is that we can see that the Titans were contesting the ball, not the man. Whilst watching live it looked dangerous the replay suggested otherwise. Incorrect decision.
5/ Oates Try. Anyone who thinks that was an ostruction by Thaiday on Bird are really reaching here. Bird ran directly at Thaiday and took him out of play. If the Broncos hadn't scored I dare say they should've received the penalty for Thaiday being taken out in back play. This one wasn't even close. Correct decision.
6/ The 'headbutt'. come on people, really? A headbutt? James wouldn't let Parker pack into the scrum so Parker forces his head into the scrum. Incidental contact is made but in no way did he lash out at James with his head. If he did James would've come after him but he didn't even notice it happened. This sort of thing happens in nearly every scrum.
So of the 6 calls that apparently cruelled the Titans, only 2 of them were actually wrong calls and one of those could very easiliy have been a Broncos penalty for interference in the ruck. Plently of calls wen against the Broncos in that match too that went unnoticed for one simple reason, they won.
Pearson was pushed when trying to catdch the first bomb of the night, Bird received a penalty for hands in the ruck when he lost the ball cold, the Titans scored from the ensuing penalty. time out was called when Taylor was injured however when Kahu was down there was no time out and the Titans scored against a 12 man defensive line.
Calls go both ways, it's only the losing team who ever whinges about it.
End Rant...
