Bulls invite Leeds to hand over points

Ganson went public on Monday to admit he blundered in failing to consult video referee Ashley Klein over the last-second try from Leeds substitute Jordan Tansey and apologised to the Bulls for his mistake.

Bradford chairman Peter Hood stepped into the row, asking the Rhinos to voluntarily give them the points, in a statement which read: "I shall be inviting the Leeds Rhinos to do the right thing - to voluntarily hand over to Bradford Bulls what is, as the whole game now acknowledges, rightfully ours - the two points so cruelly taken from us by Mr Ganson's failure to act."

Hood preceded his invitation for the points to be handed over by saying: "I want to take this opportunity to publicly place on record my sincere appreciation to Leeds Rhinos chief executive Gary Hetherington for his kind words of consolation in the immediate aftermath of the game and for his honesty in recognising the injustice.

"I also thank the Leeds head coach Tony Smith for his honest comments reported in the media. The Leeds Rhinos club is justifiably a proud club, with a great tradition, and a club which above all values its reputation for right and fair-dealing in everything it does. For these reasons I shall be inviting Leeds Rhinos to do the right thing."

Slow-motion replays indicated that Tansey was clearly offside as he chased captain Kevin Sinfield's penalty kick at goal which rebounded off a post.

Ganson, one of the Rugby League's most experienced officials who was flown to Brisbane for the recent Anzac Test, declined to comment after the match but on Monday took the unprecedented step of owning up to his mistake.

"After reviewing the video footage from the game it is clear that I made the wrong decision in awarding Jordan Tansey's try," he said. "In hindsight, I wish I had referred the decision to the video referee. At the time, my focus was on ensuring that the Bradford Bulls players were not putting off the kicker, rather than ensuring all the Leeds Rhinos players were onside.

"I didn't refer the decision to the video referee as both touch judges, who were stood behind the posts awaiting the conversion, had a good view of the grounding and I didn't feel the need to check for offside as it's very rare that players from the attacking side are in front of the kicker.

"However, the video footage shows that I was wrong not to do so as a number of Leeds players were offside. I would now like to offer an unreserved apology to all those concerned, especially the players, officials and supporters of the Bradford Bulls."