Regarding the tackles by Powell and Brown, I’d argue that Powell’s was actually worse as he attacked the knees from the side which is not in the normal direction of the joint. Browns tackle was from behind the knees in the direction the knee joints.
Hicks stopped the game yet then gave no penalty, no linesman called it neither the VR. Yet Browns was deemed not only a penalty but also a yellow. This all in the same game along with a high shot by Farrell on Griff causing him to fail a head assessment yet surprisingly nothing given even though Hicks saw it and ignored it.
Moving on to the Cas v Salford there was another tackle exactly the same as Brown by Salford on a Cas player and not anything given again.
So either Hicks made an big error with the Brown penalty compounding it with a yellow or he made an error with the Powell one and Thaler again the same error in the Cas v Salford game.
Either way these 3 incidents alone show just how poor and inconsistent the officials are currently yet the RFL seem to do nothing to improve this. I’d also argue the Farrell high shot on Griff which was direct contact with the head was no less reckless than the one Connor made on Hardaker. So be interesting if the RFL and the blind disciplinary panel will do anything on this.
