Sat 17th Feb: SL: Castleford Tigers v Wigan Warriors KO 5.30pm (Sky/BBC/SL+)

[Padge]

That was great defence from Cas, just before that try, but numbers told.

[Futtocks]

Every first round of every single season, the referee cards someone correctly according to the rules as they stand.

Every single time, a bunch of keyboard warriors post that "the game's gone".

This has been the case since the internet was invented.

Edited February 17 by Futtocks

[JimBronco]

Good defense there from Cas but Wigan manage to get the try.

[Chrispmartha]

5 minutes ago, snapski said:

Leeds and you are screaming that it’s ridiculous 

Am I? Why make things up. It’s a shoulder charge direct to the head, its a red card.

I want Cas to win so there’s no bias from me

[SUPERSTUD]

Not a Cas fan so giving unbiased view. That was never a sending off. If so then Westerman should have gone with him also. Both players appeared to carry out the same action when effecting the tackle upon Dupree.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

I know the law of the game says that is a red but it does seem harsh when dumping someone on their head only gets you a yellow. Both teams should have a man off right now. 

[Click]

2 minutes ago, EggFace said:

It's going to turn off a lot of people...looked forward to this game but switched over to Dragons v Wolves game.

Please NRL don't follow us Brits.

You make that sound like the Dragons v Wolves game is played under different rules.

[RigbyLuger]

19 minutes ago, Mark S said:

Robbie Paul has taken himself down two cul-da-sacs in his summarising. He needs to learn to have in mind what he is going to say before he starts saying it.

He's why I'm watching Sky.

[Click]

Can I just say - Thank god for the enforcement of the PTB rules, that stepping over the ball has been infuriating for years

[Coggo]

4 minutes ago, EggFace said:

It's going to turn off a lot of people...looked forward to this game but switched over to Dragons v Wolves game.

Please NRL don't follow us Brits.

Yeah, me too. This game’s gone!

[Dunbar]

3 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Every first round of every single season, the referee cards someone correctly according to the rules as they stand.

Every single time, a bunch of keyboard warriors post that "the game's gone".

This has been the case since the internet was invented.

Agreed.

And to add, hitting someone in the head has been outlawed since the game began.

[Chrispmartha]

Cas haven’t got a chance now, might switch over! How good is it having all these games on

[Worzel]

I’ve never been one of those “game’s gone” merchants, times have changed and we need to move on, but even I think that was daft. The attacker was falling into the tackle, the defender had no intent and didn’t have time to wrap because of the attackers loss of height. Classic in-game accident.

For a live ref to misjudge it is one thing, but for a video ref to analyse it and make that call ignoring all of the context they can see in the replay is just weird. 

[JimBronco]

Some kick that 

[Futtocks]

4:16 at HT

Game still alive, despite the red card.

[gingerjon]

5 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I know the law of the game says that is a red but it does seem harsh when dumping someone on their head only gets you a yellow. Both teams should have a man off right now. 

So it's not harsh. The referee should have been harsher?

[Click]

Just now, Worzel said:

I’ve never been one of those “game’s gone” merchants, times have changed and we need to move on, but even I think that was daft. The attacker was falling into the tackle, the defender had no intent and didn’t have time to wrap because of the attackers loss of height. Classic in-game accident.

For a live ref to misjudge it is one thing, but for a video ref to analyse it and make that call ignoring all of the context they can see in the replay is just weird. 

Just because a attacker loses height doesn't take away all responsibility from the defender. There has been numerous red and yellow cards for high shots in the last 10 years from defenders falling into a shoulder or arm.

[gingerjon]

5,124 viewing directly through the BBC website. I'm one of them (the son has nabbed the TV for City v Chelsea).

[Padge]

6 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I know the law of the game says that is a red but it does seem harsh when dumping someone on their head only gets you a yellow. Both teams should have a man off right now. 

It's about how it happens not the result.

[Futtocks]

1 minute ago, gingerjon said:

5,124 viewing directly through the BBC website. I'm one of them (the son has nabbed the TV for City v Chelsea).

That's some bad parenting, right there.

[Worzel]

1 minute ago, Click said:

Just because an attacker loses height doesn't take away all responsibility from the defender. There has been numerous red and yellow cards for high shots in the last 10 years from defenders falling into a shoulder or arm.

You’re right, it doesn’t. And I’d have accepted a yellow for lack of caution. But a red is a step too far for me, and if that’s where the line is then we’re going to have a lot of them as a result of genuinely unavoidable accidental collisions in what is still a contact sport. 

[gavin7094]

19 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Not sure Watts is off and not Westermam when Westerman hit him in the head with his shoulder before Watts.

It is difficult to see for certain as it happened so fast but to me it looked like Westerman's initial contact was with Dupree's shoulder, which caused his head to bounce into Watts, who then barges into Dupree's head.

Edited February 17 by gavin7094

[Click]

I completely missed the Kaide Ellis high shot - I also think that should have been a yellow or a red, rather than just a penalty. 

Guess the only real difference is the arm compared to shoulder.

[JonM]

Be interesting to see whether Harry Smith is playing against Penrith next week.

[Damien]

Not the best of games and a scrappy first half. Obviously this is largely due to the terrible conditions. 

On the sending off for me it's not a sending off due to the way Dupree is dipping. There is some mitigation there for me. Watts doesn't help himself though by making no attempt to lower his body or wrap and he just leads with his shoulder. That probably saw him see red.