{"id":438199,"date":"2026-02-21T16:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T16:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/438199\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T16:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T16:30:12","slug":"pundits-question-video-referee-call-with-super-league-side-harshly-done-to-over-crucial-no-try-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/438199\/","title":{"rendered":"Pundits question video referee call with Super League side \u2018harshly done to\u2019 over crucial \u2018No Try\u2019 decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Less than two full rounds into the 2026 Super League season and video referee decisions are already under the microscope with one from Friday night drawing plenty of questions.<\/p>\n

The call in question came during Bradford Bulls\u2019 28-10 win over Catalans Dragons<\/a> with Super League returning to Odsal for the first time in over ten years.<\/p>\n

Bradford exposed a soft Catalans side in defence as they raced into a 24-0 lead but there\u2019s an argument that it could have been 10-6 with the Dragons denied a try near the sticks in controversial fashion.<\/p>\n

New signing Iszac Fa\u2019asuamaleaui crashed over the try line with a number of Bradford bodies clinging onto him, however, for many it looked like the ex-NRL man had grounded the ball.<\/p>\n

Per Sky Sports\u2019 host Brian Carney, referee Liam Rush had established that the ball was over the line but the question was about whether it had been grounded or not.<\/p>\n

For Sam Tomkins, former Catalans player and brother of their current coach Joel Tomkins<\/a>, he felt there was enough evidence for video referee Tom Grant to see that the ball had been grounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell he took plenty of time to look at it and that looks to me as though there is some white grass under that when he touches,\u201d Tomkins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they were very harshly done to there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Super League game marred by video referee error<\/p>\n

Whilst Catalans wouldn\u2019t object that they were poor throughout the game, a try at that point with a relatively easy conversion attempt could have helped swing momentum.<\/p>\n

Brian Carney also introduced an angle that the video referee didn\u2019t check, an angle from behind the play that clearly showed the ball grounded, although it didn\u2019t show where the line was.<\/p>\n

To that, Sam Tomkins said: \u201cThe referee has agreed that the ball was over the line and I think there, you can see that it touches the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, they were 10-0 down. Catalans were thinking they\u2019re over the line and back in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Jamie Jones-Buchanan, it was a \u2018sliding doors\u2019 moment, signifying the possible shift that could have happened if the try had been correctly awarded.<\/p>\n

The Leeds Rhinos CEO said: \u201cYeah, it was a sliding doors moment that for me. There were a lot of white blades of grass that I felt were touching that ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mikey Lewis\u2019 moment of madness, shock Super League results and World Club Challenge Preview \u2013\u00a0Click here to watch the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than two full rounds into the 2026 Super League season and video referee decisions are already under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-438199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}