First let me say I'm not accusing anybody of cheating, not claiming the Stormers could have won the game.....not even asserting I'm right. But it's an interesting decision and this is what I see at minute 9.00 approximately of this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0aYbsCc6Fk
Firstly in the tackle Higginbotham's hand is coming forward and down on the ball.....you can see it most clearly in the side shot. That is totally consistent with him knocking the ball forward out of Bezuidenhout's hands.
Secondly the ball is then hoofed forward, and Phipps is impeded for four or so strides. Let's assume he would have got there before Habana et al. But watch the tape....Habana gets there as the ball reaches the goal line and I think he slowed down a bit to make sure of the ball. To beat Habana the Rebel player would have to have reached the ball before the line, maybe two metres before the line.
And so the "try" would not have been as simple as falling on the ball.....he would have needed to propel it over the line...with a kick one assumes. Who is to say he would have done that just hard enough to have then fallen on the ball....or for that matter kept it straight, with Stormers at most a stride behind.
Maybe he would have done it just right......but there has to be a measure of doubt. It's not like a pass that's knocked down two metres out.
