Referees co-coach Bill Harrigan answers your questions from Round 26 of the Telstra Premiership.
Did you agree with the decision to award Newcastle’s Darius Boyd a try?
Yes, we are happy with the decision by the video referee. The only thing that we are critical of is that the video referee did not finish off by watching the replay in normal speed. When you watch the replay in normal time, it shows that Boyd does not promote the ball at all, it stays tucked under his arm at all times and it is purely momentum that drags him onto the line.
The policy for video referees is to finish watching any double-movement decision in normal speed. He did that on the try earlier to Roy Asotasi. It is important to note that when you check double-movement, the slow motion replay can distort what has happened and make it look worse.
That is why it is important to always get all the information available to you before watching it in normal speed to finish with so that you can merge all the information at your disposal together.
They made the right decision.
Did you agree that Luke Burt had knocked the ball on when he stripped the ball from the Dragons player?
We are comfortable with that decision. He strips the ball out one-on-one which is okay. In stripping the ball out it goes straight down to his feet, which the video referee ruled as a knock-on.
What did you make of comments from Manly coach Geoff Toovey on the tackle of kicker Daly Cherry-Evans by Greg Bird?
Manly coach Geoff Toovey was critical of the tackle on Daly Cherry-Evans. Our pocket referee saw the incident and signed off on it at the time, so it was play on. The NRL match review committee has taken no further action on the tackle today, so we are comfortable with the process in place. And that we made the right decision on the run.
