Quins vs Castres - Friday night

[fivepointer]

Quins using another get out of jail free card. That was a very fortunate win. I dont think Dombrandt reached the line to score at the end and was very surprised the try was given. They could have had no complaints if it hadnt as Castres were the better side for large parts of the game.

[Puja]

Quins using another get out of jail free card. That was a very fortunate win. I dont think Dombrandt reached the line to score at the end and was very surprised the try was given. They could have had no complaints if it hadnt as Castres were the better side for large parts of the game.

While they were very lucky in general, I think Dombrandt definitely reached the tryline. The view the commentators were fulminating about where, "The defender's boot's on the line and the ball's behind the boot," suffered from the same foreshortening problem that cricket has when seeing if a catch carried. The angle from above showed his scoring arm directly above the tryline, even if it didn't show the ball itself, so I'd say he definitely scored.

The commentators were uncharacteristically poor at interpreting the ref last night. They're normally pretty good if they're not Dallaglio, but last night they were doing things like saying, "I don't know why that turnover was given as a penalty; he's on his feet," while the tackler is literally backing into the potential clearers a few cm away from where they're looking.

Puja