Ridiculous ... Robbie Farah slams the new obstruction interpretation.Source: Mark Evans / News Limited
Wests Tigers skipper Robbie Farah claims defenders are using the new obstruction rule as a cop-out to prevent tries, adding that NRL teams would soon be forced to change the way the game was played.
The score was 14-0 when Moltzen was called back, with Chris Lawrence running into opposite centre Jamie Lyon inside from where the Tigers fullback went over.
The obstruction rule has caused plenty of consternation over the opening few rounds of the season, with new referees boss Daniel Anderson having insisted on a zero tolerance policy to decoy runners coming in contact with defenders.
"It's shit,'' Farah said when asked about the rule.
"Players are using it as a cop-out.
"You've got players in the defensive line just getting hit and then straight away putting their hands up, using it as a cop-out.
"They're trying to make it a black and white rule but you can't.
"I thought we were making progress at the start of the year. We just seem to have gone backwards.''
Asked if he would go down if a decoy runner came at him near the tryline, Farah said: "After seeing tonight, bloody oath.''
The NSW Origin rake claimed the new interpretation would change the way the game was played.
"We almost can't run second-man plays anymore down near the line - it's getting that ridiculous,'' he said.
"I just can't understand how and why they're ruling it this wrong.
"The one last week in the Melbourne game, the Cooper Cronk try - that was just absurd. That's a try every day of the week.''
Lyon offered a sheepish smile when asked about his recollection of the incident.
Asked if he outsmarted the Tigers, Lyon said: "I don't know about that. I fell over - he ran into me.''
Dejected ... Ben Creagh was disappointed with an obstruction ruling on Sunday.Source: Renee McKay / AAP
When Daniel Anderson took over as referees boss at the end of 2012 he signalled the return of commonsense to refereeing.
Is commonsense being used to rule on obstruction?
But after several questionable obstruction calls in the first three rounds, players and coaches are starting to wonder if that's already out the window.
In Thursday night's grand final rematch Cooper Cronk went over for what everyone thought was a legitimate try.
Well, everyone but the officials, who penalised the Storm for obstruction.
"He scored like two blokes or three blokes outside of where the obstruction happened," a confused Cameron Smith said after the game.
"As a player, my understanding is that if someone's obstructed and a player runs through the hole where the defender would be, that's obstruction.
Click on the video at the top of the page to make your own judgement on the obstruction calls that prevented tries for the Storm and the Dragons. Were the right calls made? Vote in our poll and leave a comment at the bottom of the page to join the debate!
"If someone's checked on the way through and a try's scored 20 metres outside him ... isn't it commonsense that it's play on?"
One of the main reasons Bill Harrigan and Stuart Raper were sacked from their roles as referees coordinators in 2012 was the absence of commonsense.
Instead of using their instincts and feel for the game, referees were relying entirely on the letter of the law.
"The howlers, the clangers, came from the video refs and the adjudication of tries," he said.
"Maybe that was a result of the policy. It skewed so far that people who watched the game, commonsense-wise, would say, 'I don't know how they got to that decision'.
"Maybe that wasn't a result of the person, but the rules."
To Anderson's credit the benefit of the doubt has been abolished and the video refs' box is starting to function like clockwork.
No longer are the officials in the video box trying to manufacture a decision for the attacking team, when the average fan has a clear view that a try should be waved away.
But where commonsense has returned in some areas, it has disappeared in others.
The obstruction rule is the most obvious area where the letter of the law is still being applied to the detriment of the game.
Perhaps it's a result of an over-correction - a paradigm shift in the way the obstruction rule is being interpreted in 2013 to prevent tries like the one Justin Hodges scored in the 2012 Origin decider.
Even parochial Queenslanders like Wally Lewis admitted the decision to award that try was wrong and a call to bring back the old fashioned shepherd ruling was made.
In the case of the Cronk no-try against Canterbury-Bankstown and, to a slightly lesser extent, St George Illawarra's no-try when Brett Morris went over in the corner in the Dragons' loss to Canberra, we saw examples of the Hodges effect.
In both cases the ball was grounded by players several men wider of where the obstruction was ruled to have taken place.
Speaking to the media in their post-match press conferences, Dragons coach Steve Price and Storm coach Craig Bellamy were troubled by the rulings.
"I'm not too keen to cop a fine but I think everyone saw that," Price said.
"They're big momentum changes. At the end of the day we're not good enough to overcome them at the moment."
With Price already under enormous pressure to keep his job he promised to ring Anderson during the week for clarification.
And Bellamy might do the same.
"To the interpretation, because it is a grey area and we all understand that, it is a grey area," Bellamy said.
"I suppose (the defender) got checked on his way out and the ball was on its way out, but they had more defenders than we had attackers. And I don't think he would have got there anyway.
"I know what they're saying but I don't necessarily agree with it. If that's the interpretation there's going to be a lot of tries disallowed this year."
