Saints v Tigers Round 6 (2000)

Round 6
Sunday 12 March
Saints v
Wests Tigers
Venue: WIN STADIUM

Saints on TV 2000

Attendance: 12,021

Match Report

TV / Video Capture

Scrapbook

Referee Rating

SAINTS TEAM (ROUND 6) v WEST TIGERS:
Luke Patten, Nathan Blacklock, Matt Cooper, Shaun Timmins, Lee Murphy, Anthony Mundine, Trent Barrett, Andrew Hart, Lance Thompson, Darren Treacey, Craig Smith (c), Jason Hooper, Chris Leikvoll. Res: Luke Bailey, Daniel Heckenberg, Wayne Bartrim, Nathan Brown.
In: Murphy, Smith, Heckenberg
Out: Hookey, Pearson, Haumono
(Jamie Ainscough withdrew late due to injury)

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FULLTIME SCORE: Saints 9 - Tigers 15
Match Conditions: good
MATCH SUMMARY:
SAINTS LOSE FOR FIRST TIME AT WIN STADIUM
from Willow
Saints got 50% of the ball and this is a match that we should have won. Saints turned in another second-rate performance & I am once again unsettled by a lack of commitment from the forwards at crucial moments in the match. In a close match like this where the ref is likely to make a stuff up at any moment (which he did often), a team cannot afford to drop their guard even for a second.
The Tigers are a dull team. They play a boring, grafting type of football. They try hard to wear down their opponents by simple up the middle stuff. Unfortunately, Saints were not able to counter this style of play effectively and that concerns me.
The first half saw opportunities for both teams but the ref decided to set the pace by awarding the Tigers the points on penalty goals giving the away team a 4-nil lead at half time.
We were right in the match and even looked like winning it a couple of times especially after a great Blacklock try courtesy of Barrett just after half time which put us in the lead. Unfortunately the lads couldn't keep up the effort and had difficulty recovering from a dodgy video ref decision which was undoubtedly the turning point of the match. With Lee Murphy being tackled in mid air and denied scoring by a whisker, it should have been a penalty try, but instead Tigers' scored in the next set of six. Saints looked particularly bad in defence here. Patten tried to recover a bouncing ball in his own in-goal in what seemed to be a slow motion replay but it was just Patten being tardy. Worse was Murphy who didn't offer a zac in support - not only did he give up on the chase of this ball but he actually got well out of the way of the Tigers' chaser giving the try scorer every opportunity. The match wasn't over though and Trent Barrett put the Dragons' ahead with a field goal 9 minutes from fulltime. Unfortunately, the team relaxed, Brown kicked out on the full and Craig Field levelled things up with a reply field goal. The Tigers scored a questionable try a few minutes later with a suspect pass but the real reason why the try was scored was because Bartrim fell over a blade of grass, opening a huge gap. And with that, it was all over.
A lack of intensity was the main reason why the match was lost.
During the post mortem, we summed it up that things are going to get pretty hard from here on in and we are in danger of having a long and miserable season. I've got a particular reason to grumble because I keep picking Saints in the various tipping comps and keep missing out by one game on that elusive 'perfect score' - such is my blind devotion. Just for the record, there's no way that I'll be changing my tipping style, its always Saints to win and then lets look at the rest. On the up side, the team played well at times with both Barrett and Mundine making breaks. Barrett in particular worked hard to get things going forward. Also, Craig Smith is back with a vengeance and on more than one occasion looked a stand out. So I still hold out hope that we can come back from this. Its only a matter of time, real soon now Saints will turn the corner then look out!
Best for Saints:
3 - Barrett, 2 - Smith, 1 - Mundine
('Saints Best' tally up-date at Team 2000 - click here)

Stats:
Saints 9 (Blacklock try, Bartrim 2 goals, Barrett field goal)
Tigers 15 (Caine, O'Donnell tries, Caine 3 goals, Field field goal)

Timmins gets to 10 metres out in the opening minutes

Mundine flying

Craig Smith is back!

Daniel Heckenberg almost busts through

Timmins finds open space down the left flank

Work Rate half time

Half time in the sheds

Trent Barrett shows a turn of speed, busts 'em open and sets up Blacklock


	Nathan Blacklock scores

The non-try - keep an eye on the Tigers' winger and how he aims up Murphy in the air.
The sideline is out of shot as Murphy catches the ball.

*At no time did the Caine (No2) attempt to* *contest the ball.* *The rules are pretty specific about players* *being tackled whilst in the air and this* *should have been a penalty try.*	1
2	3
4	5
6	7 Murphy's foot just touches the chalk.

Later, Murphy shows some muscle out on the wing and the right way to tackle. Caine goes into touch.

Timmins - consecutive tackles late in the match:

Trent Barrett pops a one pointer




	Team members acknowledge the supporters

Trent Barrett just after the match
Trent Barrett Round 6

Click on the speaker to hear Trent Barrett talk

289 Kb .wav file

Craig Smith tackles John Hopoate

Quote from Newspaper article re the disallowed Murphy try:

'It's stupid having the rule and not policing it'

- Andrew Farrar

REFEREE & TOUCH JUDGES have been the sacred cows of football commentary for as long as anyone can remember. RL fans constantly jeer these necessary evils of the game. Commentators on the other hand will witness many bad calls before uttering some forgettable statement. This may be for fear of prosecution or it could be that we are suppose to let life go on and quietly turn a blind eye to these refereeing blunders and baffling decisions. The adjudicators on the field have often been spot-on. However, there are times when they are lacking in competence and some are just too plain lazy to do their job properly. At worse, some have been corrupt and history shows this to be case in this unspoken area of the game. The tally of blatant errors is not meant to be a witch-hunt on any particular referee. Afterall, most are good people who try hard to improve their skills. But they should not be above critical analysis.
This is a list of errors which most people would have seen, either watching the game on TV or live at the match.

REFEREE: Paul Simpkins

When	Description	Team advantaged by Ref error
9th minute	Penalty to Tigers against Saints holding down. Ref overreacting. There is no way that the player was troubled by defender in getting up. Penalty goal resulted in 2 points to Tigers	Tigers
22nd minute	Ref awards penalty to Tigers against Bartrim for stripping but ball was lost because of poor ball control. Penalty attempt at goal by Tigers misses	Tigers
30th minute	Quick tap mid field from Craig Smith. The entire Tigers team is offside. Smith is tackled by offside players but ref lets it go.	Tigers
34th minute	Ref gives many warnings to players for holding down, mainly against Tigers. Finally he gives a penalty in favour of Tigers as Tigers player milks and cons ref for a penalty after Treacy's hand touches the back of Tigers player. Penalty goal results in 2 points for Tigers. To make matters worse, Treacy is unjustly sent to sin bin for 10 minutes.	Tigers
37th minute	Saints attack Tigers line. A number of Tigers defenders are constantly offside and this denies Saints a try as they lose possession. The ref was not playing advantage, he just missed the offside play which everyone else saw. Incredibly Saints are penalised a moment later for offside.	Tigers
39th minute	'Fake Siren' sounds 20 seconds from half time as Tigers have a chance to score. This fools ref who doesn't ask for additional assistance. Just about everyone else at the ground knows that something is up but the ref appears to be a little rattled.	Saints
52nd minute	Murphy claims try and ref goes to vid ref. Replay shows that Murphy put toe into touch and struggled to ground ball. However, Murphy was pushed whilst in the air by Tigers' winger, Caine. It is illegal to attempt a tackle on a player in mid air. Defender has no right to tackle a player and only has the right to contest the ball if the attacking player has both feet off the ground. Caine's actions denied Murphy of a certain try and given the precedent of last year's Grand Final, the ref has no choice but to award a penalty try. For some reason it is not the case with this match and Tigers are given possession. Tigers score a try in next set of six tackles.	Tigers
57th minute	Saints, 8m out from opposition's line are look certain to score. Mundine is held down for an eternity, Tigers are blatantly offside, Tigers marker impedes dummy half and finally ref penalises Tigers after these relentless infringements. Despite Saints being denied a try, there is no sin-binning. Commentators speculate that it is because Tigers are already down to 11 men but this should not influence a top grade referee who must be consistent in rulings regarding professional fouls. Tigers are relieved to see Saints go for the penalty goal.	Tigers
66th minute	Joel Caine pushed from behind over Saints tryline by Lee Murphy taking him out of play in front of ref and touch judge. Murphy lucky to get away with this.	Saints

Total Referee or Touch Judge errors = 9
Errors in favour of Saints = 2
Errors in favour of Tigers = 7
Penalty Count: Saints 8 - Tigers 7
Comments: Paul Simpkins often lost control of the players. Darren Senter, the Tigers' skipper used intimidation and never let up on Simpkins and even though Senter was sin binned for dissent, I have to say that the Tigers got the better of this ref on the day. Also, there were a number of dust ups resulting from niggling in the tackles. The players were constantly being held down and although the ref thought he had the answers, the players clearly had little respect for him. Simpkins made plenty of bad decisions, forgot how to keep the 10 metres more than a few times and stuffed up the calling of half time. He lost the plot on occasion and this culminated in being unable to have the guts to award a warranted penalty try.
From our count the referee made 3 crucial decisions which decided in points being directly awarded or denied as a result of those decisions. The Tigers gained 4 points (2 penalty goals) from the ref whilst the Dragons were denied a minimum of 4 points (try).
Conclusion: Too much ref intervention at inappropriate times and not enough ref intervention when it was needed.
Overall rating: 4 out of 10

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