06/05/08 - Oh my, what a referee
I’m not one for criticising what Stevo calls the merry whistle blowers (to you and me, the referees), but we’ve just lost yet another derby and the crucial calls went against us, so for once, allow me to slate Mr.Ganson!
The knock-on from the kick-off, quite simply wasn’t. Whether it struck his hand or not, Berrigan certainly didn’t play at the football. But more annoying was the fact the blatantly offside Chris Chester wasn’t penalised when pressuring the Hull defenders on the back of Cooke’s grubber at the end of the ensuing set. With a drop out wrongly awarded, Rovers scored their winner on the repeat set.
Shocker.
These faux pas (if faux pas is indeed the plural of faux pas) came a week after Ganson made the worst call of the year in unjustly denying Quins’ a superb try when – with the video ref sat idle in the stand (or possibly the van) – he pulled up Michael Worrincy in the act of scoring for a supposed crossing offence that never was. That rick quite possibly cost Quins a win against Wakefield.
To add to the recent injustices, Ben Thaler probably cost Huddersfield a much needed two points when he referred Stuart Reardon’s try to the video ref despite having already called held, prompting the Giants tacklers to release the Warrington man.
Crazy.
So not the best of weeks for the officials, but in the interests of balance, I will say that we got the better of Ganson’s calls in the 2005 Challenge Cup Final. Let’s call it quits now eh, Steve….?
