Highlights: Souths beat Dragons, back in NRL top eight

Agreed -- I have seen tries awarded with less downward pressure, yet the replay room couldn't see the ball was dead in goal. The other bad call (I think before half-time) was when a St George player played the ball as well as anybody did all night, yet the ref called a penalty, Souths got the ball and scored. It brought them right back into the game. Saints were also lucky not be penalised for holding players back, Souths were shepherding and obstructing all night. As a Saints fan, I could see they were struggling, because they were trying to play a disciplined defensive game. Souths were all over the place, which allows for individual touches of brilliance, and against a struggling side like St George, it came off. It won't work against other teams. I wondered whether the ref's advantage to South was a catchup for the way Souths had been dudded against Parramatta last week!

Pretty much Con Scortis' because that is how it is with 'Epiquin' you have to agree to him disagreeing with you lol but seriously the Rabbitohs did play some good football but it was mostley scrappy and wouldn't do anything against a good side, and that is what I was saying.

I honestly thought Dugan got a fingertip to it first, which in most cases is deemed to have grounded the ball.

Hi steveng, are you saying that you agree with Epiquin disagreeing with you. Haha/

I have supported the Dragons for over 50 years and I am with you on Dugan;; this bloke is oh so over rated. The Tele waxes lyrical about his huge metres every game. Take a look at footage of the number of times metres are eaten up when he crabs cross field or when he runs freely back to the 25 after securing in goal ball. He may be ok in defense but a lot of tries are scored against the Red V when he plays at the back. Every week I look to see if he will live up to all the hype and every week I am disappointed.

You are spot on about the poor refereeing. Not the first game it has burned the Red V. Our marker defense needs a lot of work. We need a quality half back and a big metre eater in the engine room. We also need Peter Doust to resign for someone who will build this club back to somewhere near its former greatness.

Watching the Dragons this year and last has been an exercise in masachism.

'Epiquin' I agree, but considering the Dragons had 5 players out our Rabbitohs should have thrashed them. I do agree that we had some good passages of play but overall we were bad and we made some very bad elementary mistakes (and I thought that we were back to our usual self) compared to the game against the Eels which really proved how good we can be.

Watching the Dragons play is liking watching when NSW SOO play Take the ball up, get tackled then let the next bloke do the same No variety! Lo and behold I started to some improvement in the early part of the 2nd half Kick behind the line, moving the ball fast through the lines and trying to create opportunities The Dragons keep working on that and fix up their defense will all be a step in the right direction

Was that actually a quick restart though? The ref had given the mark and most of the bunnies were back onside. I'm honestly not sure of the definition. I think a quick restart they don't have to wait for the ref.

Tend to agree, the 7 or 8 dropped balls ( most of them by the Burgess trio ) were maddeningly frustrating. The Burgess Twins will drop one or two balls a game every week. When they did hang on to the ball, Souths put together some good passages of play. Reyno kicking game was very good, GI very involved in first half, Walker and Nielsen were very busy. Up front Carter and Brown were excellent.

Very good of you Con. Noted that it was Walker not Carter in the knock-ons. I was watching on Fox so possibly I was influenced by them to feel so strongly on the Carter try - my own feelings though is that while one angle showed inconclusive fingers possibly just sliding on the ball, another angle showed the ball clearly being pushed into the ground sufficient to stop the rotation. Not an easy one, but for them to be so confident of no grounding to overrule the ref pushed the buttons of this Dragons fan.

Sorry mate, I'm trying to look beyond my red and white eyes but all I can see is Bill Harrigan talking himself around a corner as he is occasionally prone to do. For simplicity let's abstract it away from last nights scenario and just consider that a player has hit the ground on purpose for safety. Apart from consistency, neither of us would have an issue with that being blown as a voluntary tackle. Where it loses me is the idea of a rule that says 'if the defender believes the player has dived but the ref refuses to call a voluntary tackle, then the defender gains the right to drag the attacking player as far across the turf as they like'. Such a rule does not exist.

With regards to the quick 20m restart, I was under the impression that for that to happen knightingale should have been the one to take it not the person he gave it off to. Anyone who can clarify that for me?

So what you're saying Epi is we need to have "separation" of "(benefit of the) doubt".

Can anybody explain the media's fascination for exaggerating how far players pass the ball? Joey was wetting himself at GI's "30 meter pass" (and highlighted in the article above). The field is 68 meters across, he would almost be beside the posts to pass it to a player still in the field of play??? Even better, there are lines on the field 10 and 20 meters in from touch, he passed from the 20, caught it 2 meters in from touch. These players are already amazing enough as it is without making their feats even more 'super human'.

This is why I think we need to try and eliminate some of the grey area when it comes to interpreting the rules.

I disagree steveng, apart from all the drop ball and a couple of defensive errors, I thought Rabbitohs played well. I think if they had managed to complete more sets they would have scored a lot more tries.

Yeah that seems fair. If 3 players are shovelling a player towards the sideline and the ref calls held, there's a fair bit of momentum there and they can't just stop. I'd rather see a play the ball allowed, instead of a penalty.

Thanks Ken, I know we're probably going to disagree on this, but I'm arguing that Dugan hit the ground before anybody tackled him so the first defenders on the scene just dragged him over, rather than flopping on him. Bill Harrigan made a similar point as well. Jeez I'd love to see the voluntary tackle rule enforced again. There's something so frustrating about watching players dive instead of taking on the defense.