The Castleford coach Daryl Powell hit out at Super League’s video refereeing system after two controversial decisions cost the Tigers victory to Huddersfield.
In a game littered with drama involving the video official, the Giants shook off a Challenge Cup hangover to tighten their grip on fourth spot with a 24-16 victory against the Tigers, who themselves would have gone into fourth place with a win.
Tries awarded for the former Castleford favourite Craig Huby and also Eorl Crabtree upset Powell, who said that the way tries are referred to video referees simply does not work.
Referees on the field have to determine whether they think any potential scores are a try or not before sending them upstairs, and Powell insisted afterwards that there is too much guesswork dictating decisions made by the video referee. “You can’t make your grievances known,” he said afterwards. “I’ve been through it before and it’s a waste of time; it’s absolutely pointless. There are too many calls made by people who are guessing – I think there’s too much guesswork going on.”
Crabtree’s try in particular, when Castleford were chasing the game late-on, upset Powell, who said there was no proof the forward grounded the ball on the line. “If you didn’t have a referee making the call [on the field] I think they’d have said he was short. There wasn’t any evidence to say it was on the line, but because he [Silverwood] says it is a try there’s no evidence to say it definitely isn’t on the line.”
Despite the controversy, Huddersfield produced another resolute and robust performance to maintain their record as Super League’s meanest defensive team. A run of just 214 points conceded in 15 games has helped spearhead their charge up the table, as they bounced back from a 48-16 defeat in the Challenge Cup at the hands of Leeds last weekend to keep up their impressive league form amidst much controversy.
Asked if he would have felt aggrieved about the two video referee calls that swung the game, the Huddersfield coach Paul Anderson said: “I probably would have had reason to complain if I’d been in Daryl’s position. We always complain if decisions go against us; I feel for Daryl, but the referee on the field thought they were tries so it’s hard for video referees to overturn it.”
A commanding first-half performance from the Giants laid the platform for their victory, but the first try of the evening was one of two big calls that aggrieved Powell. Former Tigers forward Huby appeared to lose the ball when barging over but the try was awarded – much to the discontent of the Castleford fans.
There was less doubt over tries from Aaron Murphy and Ukuma Ta’ai that stretched Huddersfield’s lead, and which came either side of Jake Webster crashing over to give the home side some hope at 18-4 at the interval.
Whatever Powell said at the interval had the desired effect though, as the lively Ben Roberts scored a superb individual try to reduce the gap further. Castleford looked to be running out of ideas against a typically robust Huddersfield defence, before the captain Michael Shenton made it three tries apiece on the night by finishing off a superb team move, with only one missed goal from Luke Gale splitting the teams at 18-16.
The Tigers kept pressing in the hope of completing a remarkable comeback before another controversial call from the video referee secured the win for Huddersfield as Crabtree was awarded a score that sealed the two points when he was adjudged to have grounded on the try line.
Castleford Tansey; Gibson, Webster, Shenton, Solomona; Roberts, Gale; Lynch, Milner, Bailey, O Holmes, Mariano, Massey. Interchange Millington, Jewitt, Finn, McMeeken.
Huddersfield Grix; McGillvary, Murphy, Connor, Broughton; Brough, Wood; Mullally, Leeming, Huby, Wardle, Hughes, Ferres.
Interchange Robinson, Crabtree, Kopczak, Ta’ai.
Referee R Silverwood (RFL).
