Official West Hartlepool RFC

disappointing result - we tried to play too much rugby in conditions that made holding onto the ball very difficult. We should have been putting a lot more kicks in, making them do something from their own 22 and the mistakes would have come. As it turned out, we didn't really get near their line apart from the 2 brief spells at the end of each half.

Cant fault the effort from the lads but it was a game I'd rather forget.

last week their lads were too big and this week the ball was too slippy>>>
what's next week's excuse >>not enough comics on the coach?>>>

Very fair report from Lymm and I'm pleased to see they flagged up the bizarre happenings at the very end of the game.
From where I was standing it looked like the big No 5 who had been propping went off with a blood injury so the Ref called back the prop who was half way through serving a yellow card.
Thats's a new one on me, i'm afraid. Surely the prop should have stayed off. If there was no suitable replacement we should have had uncontested scrums?

According to the referees assessor he did the right thing bringing the prop back on to the pitch - it was very bizarre to say the least!

That was indeed the case. However it would have been better for us if the scrum had been uncontested and a solid base to attack from rather than being a bit disrupted.

When we were talking to the assessor after the game he said that he could not talk about the scrum at the end off the game but we put our thoughts of which should have been done and he just rised his eye brows and laughted with no comment

Surely if a player is sin binned he cannot return to the field of play until his 10 minutes is up even if he was the only fit prop left it should of been uncontested scrums until he served his time in the bin.

An appeal I suggest!

I was a strange afternoon. I sit infront of the assessor and usually get quite a bit of feedback as to what the ref is saying and doing. There was nothing on Saturday !

Are you sure it was the assessor? My records show that on Saturday the only person watching the ref was his coach, who I would expect would not make comment until he has spoken with his referee

I looked at the laws and they don't mention that specific scenario - but I think the fact that there's no suggestion of the sent-off/yellow carded player coming back on means that it shouldn't have been allowed.

having said that, it made no difference because we got the ball cleanly out of the scrum anyway and, if anything, it was an advantage for us that their prop was back on as by that stage he was doing nothing except walking very slowly from one scrum to the next!

There wasn't an assessor at the game.
The Ref was quite happy to explain everything at the end of the game.
Basically, he sent their prop off to the sin bin. He was replaced in the front row by the No 5 who promptly suffered a nasty facial injury. He wasn't bleeding much, if at all, but had quite a large hole in his face which sadly may need plastic surgery.
He wanted to continue playing, but our front row was unhappy to prop against him because of the injury. So the Ref reconciled things by asking the 5 to leave the pitch and asking the prop to return.

Advantage to us??

An uncontested scrum, playing against 13 for the last couple of minutes or playing against 15, as allegedly their second row also came back on(I didnt see it... as Arsen Wenger would say)

I know people are talking about appealing but we had plenty of possession to win this game before this happened, would be harsh on Lymm to take that route,

Hash on us if we needed points for play off or survival though! Rules is rules.

The "advantage to us" comment was tongue in cheek based on the fitness of their prop! Although I had forgotten that they would have been down to 13 if the number 5 had to leave the field due to his injury, and the prop had not been allowed back on.
Uncontested scrums should have been the decision although, as I said, we still had our chance at the end and didn't take it.

So who was this person who was going round telling people he was the assessor if there wasn't one at the match?! I might try that next time.

My fault slip of the key board Assessor / Coach whatever

west girl started it not you!!!