HEAD coach James Ford reckons centre James Morland was unfairly denied one of the tries of the season on Sunday – and believes video evidence backs him up.

Ford has already bemoaned not having the rub of the green from the officials in York City Knights’ ding-dong 34-28 League One loss at Keighley on Sunday, questioning referee Jamie Bloem’s interpretation of fair ruck speed when the Cougars were defending.

This try could also have altered the contest. Morland, on his return to the team, scored two on the day but in between times was denied a spectacular first-half effort by a touch judge.

The 21-year-old stood up and then rounded pacy Cougars winger Andy Gabriel, then beat full-back Ritchie Hawkyard on the outside, only for Gabriel to get back at him.

He dived into the corner but the touch judge ruled out the try. It is unclear if it was for a foot in touch or improper grounding – but Ford says video evidence favoured the attacker.

“The quality of the footage (from the home club’s recording) isn’t great but you can see he’s not in touch and he grounded the ball,” said Ford.

“He hits the flag, which you’re allowed to do. You’d want better footage to put your mortgage on it but it’s certainly very close.”

The same touch judge also soon awarded Keighley a debatable l Turn to Page 38 40-20, from which Jonny Campbell scored a key try for the hosts.

Ford said: “I thought at the time James’ effort wasn’t a try but looking back, I’m not so sure. It was a remarkable piece of skill. To me, looking at the video, it’s 60-40 a try.

“Jamie Bloem looks like he’s going to give it but after discussions with the touch judge – the same touch judge that awarded that 40-20 – he rules it out. They were two really big calls from one fella.”

The Knights coach added: “When you have two reasonably equal teams and one has a fair amount of leniency in the ruck and three or four pretty close calls going their way, it tips things in their favour.

“We showed an awful lot of fight to give ourselves a chance of winning the game but that desire wasn’t quite enough. We needed a bit more smartness with it.”

On video evidence of the match as a whole, Ford said: “We were pretty unfortunate at times. We worked really hard – the stats support that – and physically we dominated Keighley.

“We had 97 per cent tackle success and 30 per cent would be classified as dominant. The same is true of our carries but unfortunately the interpretation of the ruck speed didn’t reflect that.

“We were good value for a win but they had a couple of breakaway tries and a couple of unfortunate pieces of play put pressure on us.

“Keighley are a good team and if you’re going to have lapses in concentration, it’ll be a tough ask to win. We were brave and tough enough for the win but we made a few too many individual errors.”

Ford admits the bruising clash over in France a week earlier might have taken its toll – likewise for Toulouse in their win at London Skolars.

He said: “I’ve watched Toulouse’s game and it was the worst I’ve seen them play. There were errors all over and their energy was down. What I saw from them in London was not what I saw from them against us.

“Emotionally did that game take a heap out of both teams? It was first v second and a lot of people spent a lot of physical and emotional energy. Maybe both teams were suffering a little bit.”