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Monday, 30 September, 2002, 11:00 GMT 12:00 UK

The camera sometimes lies

By Dave Woods
BBC Sport

'It's your call, ref' should be the message from the RFL after the weekend's video controversies.

It's highly likely that two talking-point touchdowns would have been disallowed had the man in the middle been left to sort out the muddle by himself, rather than calling for the cameras.

And if both tries had been disallowed, nobody would have had any arguments and no controversy would have arisen.

Take the Lee Jackson try at Headingley for a start.

His cheeky or cheating touchdown - depending on your point of view - should never have been allowed in a million years.

The cameras clearly showed him carrying an extra ball even before the original ball had been kicked into touch.

He was obviously trying it on when he took the quick tap and darted in.

And had Russell Smith been forced to decide what to do, I'm convinced he would have ordered a re-tap as neither he nor his touch-judge saw what went on.

If he had, no-one could have complained.

As it was the issue was hoisted onto the big screen, and somehow the video ref gave a try.

Tackling the issue

Wrong decision, and hoots of despair on the terraces and in the after-match press conference.

Then came Saturday's cause celebre.

Michael Eagar appeared to have been tackled. In fact the video evidence on Sunday's Super League Show proved by freezing the action that his ball carrying arm hit the ground with Martin Aspinwall still in contact.

The referee seemed to shout 'held', certainly that's what the Wigan players thought, who held out of the tackle.

And to cap it all, referee Ganson had his whistle in his mouth and was running towards where the "tackle" was made before Eager had even crossed the try-line.

Had he stuck to his guns and given a penalty to Wigan, the incident would have raised barely an eye-brow after the game.

Instead the technology was brought in again, and again the wrong decision was made, causing all kinds of consternation.

I'm all for the big screen and the video refs. They have made some incredibly difficult decisions look clear cut one way or the other.

But we have to accept that sometimes the video ref gets it wrong or simply doesn't know whether it's a try or not.

In those circumstances he has to have communication with the ref and offer it back to the whistle blower to make the final call.

Too many times weak referees hand it over because they are afraid to be seen to have made a mistake.

Unfortunately the whole process will be in disrepute unless the referees are forced to make a stand when it's they, not the cameras, who know best.


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