NEVER before has such a pulsating Grand Final been as harshly and unnecessarily overshadowed by an incident in the dying seconds, but 18 years on, the question of Chris Joynt's alleged voluntary tackle against Bradford still raises the hackles of Saints' major foe from across the Pennines in the early years of Super League.

To recap on this day in 2002, Saints scrum half Sean Long had nailed the match winning drop goal in the closing stages to put Saints 19-18 ahead.

Bulls went for a short kick off to try and retrieve it, they failed - and all skipper Joynt had in his head was driving it in from dummy half with the ball secure for the last play of the game.

The canny Bulls players pulled out of the tackle, resulting in Joynt hitting the deck, before swiftly regaining his feet.

What started with Jimmy Lowes waving his arms in protest and Stevo agreeing, carried on in the press conference afterwards....and developed into a long running-thread on the Bradford fans forum.

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But Joynt explained in his autobiography, The Quiet Man why the ref got it  right.

Writing about that play he said: "I went from dummy half and was expecting to get creamed with one last hit, but a bit of smart play by Jamie Peacock and Paul Deacon saw how I was taking the ball in and pulled out of the tackle and I hit the deck.

"All of a sudden they sprung off complaining to the ref I dived and appealed for a penalty.

"But I know the rules and as long as I got up and carried on until their men tackled me I was OK.

"If I stayed on the floor like a dead fish it would have been a voluntary tackle.

"But I didn't so all those pundits who were complaining about referee Russell Smith's failure to award a penalty were talking rubbish.

"The referee's controller Stuart Cummins agreed there was nothing wrong with what I had done.

"Pressure kick or not, if Russell Smith had listened to the Bulls players and given in, Deacon would definitely have kicked it."

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