...for "offside" is another chunk of the finest bullshit from Ben O'Thief. Note the ball is out here and Sua is still behind the line. Both the other two retreating Aussies also kept retreating to behind the line before they moved up in defense again. Can't help but recall the same O'Thief conspiring with the TMO to rule Earl's chop tackle on Sua in the red zone in the Lions series as "used both arms in the tackle", even though Earl had both his arms planted on the ground.
Yes Wilson was trying to lower his hit….so marginal. A marginal call and a wrong call all in a rush of punitive calls when by most standards Oz was not conceding penalty after penalty. It felt like one of those cases where a ref is laser focused on just one team. Some refs have this proclivity.
@Mozart compounded by there having been a number of similar contacts in the game that wasn't even looked at. I agree with Hansen's comments on these tackles - penalty and put the guy on report, let it be dealt with afterwards. So few of these high shots are intentional, most come about from split second changes in posture or direction that no player can realistically adjust to. He also makes the point that the fewer players a team is left with, the more desperate their defense becomes and the more likely these high tackles become. Which might explain Hunter's tackle on Sacha, going high to smother the pass wide where the Aussies were starved of numbers.
Once you end up with 11 against 15, it's no longer a contest. It's a farce.
