Quote Ferocious Aardvark="Ferocious Aardvark"Or, to be completely accurate, every person in the ground who is not registered blind could 100% definitely say the ball went more than 10 before it was blown back'"
What I found difficult was in normal circumstances the players contesting the kickoff, would have been near or over the 10 to ensure they could defend the kick. The Hull player did not have to reverse to take the ball! Obviously memory of an incident sometimes lets me and all the other registered blind people down! However it looked like a ploy, and if we had encroached into the 10, would Robert H, have penalised us for offside??? And in windy conditions could not a side do this every time they kicked off, to gain such an advantage? (a hair is split, now)
Another bone of contention was the "Free" play that saw us knock on and Hull take up the advantage, they then gave a forward pass that if not seen by the Ref. may have resulted in a try. Obviously RH followed the rules and gave a scrum for the first offence. However if a try had have been scored because the FP was missed, that would have been a mockery of that rule and what's more since when is a side allowed to commit a rule breaking play, and then the non offenders be penalised by losing possession because they committed the first error prior to the advantage being given to the opposition?
So not sure of the free play ruling, the coaches are obviously teaching players how to exploit it now, by breaking the rules, at the time I personally had no doubt that the FP was deliberate, (technically offside) which could have resulted in a try. Of course the 10 metre fiasco with wind factor resulted in a try, and the crowd showed their dissent vocally. Only about a couple of thousand of the blind portion of our supporters, of course???
Another point FA do we have to pay extra for the Labrador's??