Ben-d Over
Hornets bummed by bizarre decisions.

The details of this game barely do justice to the fact that Hornets played Featherstone off the park. Even reduced to 12 men after the freakish dismissal of Dave Alstead, Hornets completely ran the show, but came up with very little for their efforts.

The reason? A refereeing performance from Ben Thaler so surreal that it would make Salvador Dali on Mescalin look a picture of composed common sense.

Hornets got off to a flyer. Just minutes in a perfectly flighted Goulding kick bisected a static Fev defence, Dave Cunliffe ghosted through to gather on the full and plonk the ball down. So perfectly executed, it looked too easy. Indeed, this was the assumption on which Thaler made the decision to disallow the try - wiping the effort off without consulting the touch judge (and not too many people from Featherstone complaining).

The next foray into Featherstone’s half, Hornets set up good position by the posts; Michael Platt arrived at pace, crashed through defenders and landed face down over the line. Evidence enough for Thaler to decide that he was on his back and restart play from ten metres. Less than ten minutes gone and Thaler’\s agenda was obvious.

On 11 minutes, Hornets finally got over the line to the ref’s satisfaction - Darren Robinson shrugging off defenders to sneak in from two yards.

It didn’t take too long for Thaler to revert to form. 20 minutes - a complete miscommunication between Platty and Tommy Hodkinson saw the ball go to ground and as Rovers’ Dooler hacked through, Platt turned to chase and Dooler ran into him. Ten minutes for obstruction. Thaler repeated the call on 24 minutes when a footrace for a kick between Chris Campbell and and Fev’s Ford ended close to the line in a tangle of lunging bodies - Thaler deciding that Ford had obstructed and dispatching him for ten minutes. Quite, quite ludicrous.

From the resulting penalty, which Goulding pulled just wide, Mark McCully took advantage of confusion in the Rovers ranks to gather the loose ball and plunge in. Thaler adjudging that he’s knocked on over the line.

Another chance gone; half time six-nil - and Featherstone nowhere near the pace of the game.

Fev started the second half in desperate fashion. Obviously under orders not to get nilled they hoofed two quick penalties to drag themselves into contention.

Driven by Goulding’s searching kicks, Hornets kept going forward. On 50 minutes, the Bobster drilled an inch-perfect kick deep into Featherstone’s in-goal area. The ball came to a halt short of the dead ball line and, as rag-handed Fev winger Jamie Stokes tried to will the ball dead, Lee Birdseye dived in to touch down.

However... the touch judge - who couldn’t be bothered running the thirty metres for a look at the position of the ball - flagged the ball as dead (even with it sitting a foot inside the dead ball line) and Hornets were denied a clear try.

Just when Hornets supporters thought it couldn’t get any worse, on 60 minutes Darren Robinson charged down a flapping Chapman clearing kick; full back Moss gathered close to his own line, but under the impact of Robinson’s tackle he dropped the ball; Robinson picked up and scored.

But no... Thaler - in his most bizarre decision of the afternoon - gave a knock on against Robinson (after allowing play to go on from the charge-down) and brought play back thirty metres to restart with a scrum. Pretty much wrong on all accounts.

As the game degenerated into a scrappy mess, Goulding kicked two more penalties - one from half way after Chapman had missed the pitch with a kick off - planting the ball firmly in row D of the Wilbutts Lane stand.

And Thaler continued to listen to the voices in his head. 62 minutes, Dave Alstead ran the ball into heavy traffic, the ball was jolted free and as he reached desperately for the ball he caught the gathering Dooler high. Careless certainly, but not reckless. Thaler was pointing to the tunnel before the ball hit the deck. There was no intent and ‘on-report’ might have been a more sensible option. But when did Thaler do ‘sense’?

So, a man down, Hornets upped the ante, taking the game to a flagging Featherstone and searching for an elusive opening. Goulding and Dickens exchanged penalties and - running out of ideas - a flying Blakeway speculative pass stuck to Hayes’ hand and Featherstone - massively against the run of play, but buoyed by a 13-7 penalty count, were level. After 72 minutes, it was their first meaningful attack.

Hornets kept going forward and gritty determination took them close enough for Gareth Price to shove off defenders and dive in. Thaler ruled that he’d knocked on and - for all their total domination - Hornets saw a point dropped.

Ignore the scoreline - this was about as one-sided a game as you could hope to see. Getting over the opponents’ line seven times tells the real tale - and you’d expect the law of averages to offer up a better return than one in seven.

Featherstone were sluggish, lumbering - playing one-out football for long periods and unable to control the ball. Hornets strove to play open football and, on another day, would have strolled this game without breaking sweat.

Goulding expressed his frustration afterwards: “I’m cheesed off that I’ve got my lads ready for a game and the officials aren’t able to keep up. Lee Birdseye touched down and he gave a tap. Darren Robinson’s was a try as well, but he gave a scrum. It’s an absolute disgrace - I’m absolutely fuming.”

And so are we. As Hornets go from strength to strength, we should be talking about a great game today. As it is we are - once again - agog at the inability of Ben Thaler to see what’s going on around him.