Saturday 21 March 2009

Panthers beaten by 14 Bulldogs?

Breaking news out of Penrith with vision shown on Fox Sports indicating that in the set of six that the Bulldogs scored their match-winning try to Ben Roberts, the Bulldogs look to have been fielding 14 men on the field at that time. Now Rugby League is a 13 on 13 contest.. sometimes those numbers can go lower but never higher and when Roberts - the man who scored the heartbreaking try for Panthers fans - came onto the field it looks like the Dogs have 14 players on the field. Now if this is proven to be fact the Dogs will have to lose the points but if you're Penrith coach Matt Elliott and his players - surely the fact that extra man made the match-winning difference for their opposition - should they not receive the 2 points? With only 13 men you can argue quite emphatically that the Bulldogs can't create the mass numbers on the left - where Roberts scored - and Penrith have thus been denied victory by a breaking of the rules that directly impacted the game. This is a huge decision looming for the NRL - they can't afford to get it wrong - Penrith don't deserve another mistake.