BY JOHN DAVIDSON
The RFL has confirmed to Barrow that the referee made a mistake in the club’s defeat to Halifax, where the Raiders were forced to play with just 11 players, but will not overturn the controversial result.
Barrow went down 38-12 away to Halifax on the weekend.
During the match the Raiders were reduced to 11 on the field after Ben Tibbs scored.
A scuffle between the two teams followed after the try, with Brett Carter sin-binned and Delaine Gittens-Bedward, who was on the bench at the time, red carded for his part in the melee.
This meant that Raiders were forced to remove a player from the field, sending them down to 11 men for the next 10 minutes. Following this the Panthers scored three uncontested tries to close out the game.
Barrow should have been allowed 13 men back on the field after Carter’s 10 minutes in the sin bin was served, but they were not and completed the match with only 12 players.
The club appealed to the RFL after the match about the costly mistake.
While the governing body has sympathy for the Raiders and the Match Officials Department has admitted that an error was made, the result will stand.
“Under Operational Rule B2:12, there is no discretion and the result stands,” an RFL spokesperson told rugbyleaguehub.com Long Reads.
Barrow and Halifax are both battling to avoid relegation from this season.
The Raiders sit in 11th spot with 13 points, while the Panthers are above them in 10th spot on 16 points.
