Referees co-coach Bill Harrigan answers your most frequently asked questions from Round 7 of the NRL Telstra Premiership.
What are your thoughts on the no-try ruling by the video referee for obstruction against the Knights in their game against the Dragons on Friday night?
Obstruction decisions can at times be very difficult to rule on as each incident is never the same and the ruling can never be black and white. Despite the defender stopping in the line during this play, on review we believed that it did not have sufficient impact on the defending team for the try to be disallowed. Again this wasn’t a simple black and white decision but we believe the correct ruling should have been to award a try.
See the no-try decision against Newcastle
Did you agree with the decision by the video referee to rule a knock-on against Dragons forward Ben Creagh when he attempted to score?
Ben Creagh did not retain possession of the ball. Creagh would have dropped the ball had it not been kept on the back of his arm by resting against a defender. They got this call right, he lost the ball.
See the Ben Creagh no-try call
Why was Joel Thompson put on report for a swinging arm that collected his teammate and not an opposition player?
The referee did not see contact but did see the swinging arm. He decided to place it on report. I don’t believe it’s a reportable offence and had he seen it the way we did on the replay I’m sure he would not have placed it on report.
