fevnut's musings #14: Penalty Tries, Annual Awards and Batley

   

Penalty Tries

Did you watch the Super League play-off semi-final between St. Helens and Salford Red Devils last Saturday?

We thought that it was a magnificent display from Salford, particularly bearing in mind that they were without Brodie Croft who is so important to them and this year's winner of the Albert Goldthorpe Medal. Probably the next best performer for Salford this season has been Andy Ackers who was put out of the game in the 24^th minute by a dangerous tackle from Morgan Knowles. We thought that Morgan Knowles should have been red-carded rather than the yellow that he did receive. So, a really important player for Salford was unable to play for 56 minutes whereas Saints only lost Knowles for ten minutes. That is really harsh.

With ten minutes to go Saints were winning 19-12 but in the 75^th minute we thought that Salford really should have been awarded a penalty try when Tommy Makinson pulled back Tim Lafai after a grubber from Marc Sneyd into the in-goal area. We thought that it was likely that Lafai would have scored had he not been pulled back by Tommy Makinson.

A few years ago the rule on penalty tries was changed. It used to be that a penalty try was only awarded if the referee was sure that a try would have been scored but for an offence by a defending player. The rule now reads:

Penalty try the Referee may award a penalty try if, in his opinion, a try would have been scored but for the unfair play of the defending team. A penalty try is awarded between the goal posts irrespective of where the offence occurred.

 

Too often this season we have seen instances where a try is likely to have been scored but not awarded. Tommy Makinson received a yellow card for a professional foul but that was scant consolation for Salford who seemed to have real momentum in that last period and may well have scored again, at least with a drop goal in the last 5 minutes.

 

We are firmly of the belief that the penalty try rule should be looked at again. We don’t blame the referee in this case. Both he and the video ref were acting in accordance with their guidelines but surely it can’t be right and is certainly not fair if foul play prevents an opportunity to score.

 

While we were looking at the rule-book for the precise wording about penalty tries we noticed the next paragraph about when a try should be awarded which we had no idea about and have never seen implemented in all our years of watching rugby league:

 

Touching Referee/Others  an attacking player carrying the ball comes into contact with the Referee or a Touch Judge or an encroaching spectator in the opponents’ in-goal and play is thereby irregularly affected.

 

Have you ever seen this rule enacted?

 

Featherstone Rovers 2022 Awards

There was a really good turnout for the awards on Sunday.

For those who couldn’t be there, and because we haven’t been able to find the list on the website, here are the recipients. 

Player’s Player of the Year: Junior Moors

Best Defensive Player: Gadwin Springer

Best Attacking Player: Connor Jones

Leadership Award: James Lockwood

Grafters Award: Matty Wildie

Try of the Season: Joey Leilua (v Catalans Dragons)

Rookie of the Year: Sam Eseh

Newcomer of the Year: Ryley Jacks

Community Award: Craig Hall

Coaches Player of the Year: Junior Moors

Steven Mullaney Player of the Year Trophy: Junior Moors

 

Please don’t get us wrong. We have absolutely no gripes with any of the above but we do think that there is one player in our squad who didn’t receive an award but who really deserved to have his efforts recognised. We are referring to the player who, so far, has scored the most tries in 2022 and has played in 30 of our 32 games (equal top with three others). That player is Morgan Smith who has been excellent for us in 2022 and been a joy to have him at Fev.

 

Batley

We were very happy that our semi-final is to be against Batley rather than, as expected, against Halifax.

 

That’s because it gives us a chance to right two things in our playing record. The first, obviously, was that awful 28-20 loss to them at home in June but it also gives us a chance to rectify our play-off record against them.

 

In 2002 we played them in what was a strange Top 9 play-off system at the end of the last year of the Northern Ford Premiership. We had finished 5^th in the table with 37 points and Batley had finished 7^th with 33 points. In March we had beaten them comfortably by 43-12 at home only to lose 46-22 at Mount Pleasant in July. Having won 13 of the previous 16 games we were definitely favourites to beat Batley at home in the second round of the play-offs. But we lost the game narrowly 32-30.

 

The second time we played Batley in the play-offs was in 2013 and it was a horror show! We had won the League Leaders Shield (for the fourth time in a row), having finished top on 70 points whereas Batley had finished 5^th on 57 points. After 54 minutes we were in a comfortable 20-6 lead but two converted tries took the score to 20-20 at 80 minutes. In golden point extra time George Flanagan kicked a drop goal and knocked us out of the play-offs. Not even the ‘Shaun Ainscough’ match in 2018 made amends for the hurt we all felt in 2013. Incidentally in the first round of the 2013 play-offs we had won 40-26 Against none other than Leigh Centurions!

And guess who won the League Express Man of the Match award for Batley? None other than John Davies!

 

So, get there on Sunday and cheer on our lads and take revenge for both our loss in the league in June this year and our 0-2 record against Batley in play-offs!