Set of Six: The main talking points from the world of Rugby League

We look at the main talking points from last weekend's round of Rugby League fixtures.

Rugby league mourns Ackerman

The Australian rugby league community has been plunged into mourning follow the death of 25-year-old James Ackerman during a Queensland Cup tie on Saturday.

Sunshine Coast Falcons front-row forward James Ackerman, a father-of-two, suffered a head injury after just four minutes of their Queensland Cup match against the Norths Devils.

Ackerman failed to get up from a tackle and was treated on the pitch by medical staff for over 30 minutes before being taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, where he died on Monday.

The Ackerman family released a statement thanking everyone for their support.

"James loved the game of rugby league, he always played the game with his heart on his sleeve. We will miss you!"

Francis Molo, the 20-year-old player who tackled Ackerman, has been receiving counselling and support. His manager says he is struggling to come to terms with what happened.

This is the second tragic incident to have occurred in rugby league in less than two months, with Keighley Cougars’ Danny Jones suffering a fatal cardiac arrest during a game on May 3.

Roberts' wins it for Tigers

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This was Super League at it's very best as Ben Roberts secured a dramatic drop goal in the final seconds to give Castleford a 25-24 win against Saints.

With the scores locked at 24-24, both sides were desperately looking for that one break to secure the win. Roberts looked devastated as his knock-on in front of his own posts had given Saints the perfect opportunity to kick a winning drop-goal of their own. However, James Roby knocked on at the scrum which gave the Tigers one last play. They moved the ball right to the Saints line before, on the final play of the game, Roberts squeezed a drop goal through the poles to snatch a superb win for the home side.

Danny McGuire’s yellow card

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Leeds coach Brian McDermott has a point when he said that the game of Rugby League has got a bit confused after Danny McGuire was shown a yellow card against Hull FC.

McGuire was shown a yellow card by referee Robert Hicks for kicking out at his opposite number Marc Sneyd in a tackle ten minutes from the end. Sneyd was shown a yellow card for holding McGuire down after a tackle, prompting McDermott to question the ruling from the officials.

"He could have broken his ankle by the look of it," McDermott said. "He's not walking – he can't even put it on the ground. It's a bad one.

"He's been single-handedly our best player all year and I'm not sure how we get over his loss.

"I'm that angry that our game can get it confused to such a level.

"The kid makes a break and has his ankle twisted – even the referee signalled that. And in desperation to not have his ankle broken, he kicks out to get the bloke off his ankle and he gets sin-binned for it.

"It worries me that the game has got that wrong."

Red card for Ferres

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Huddersfield had to dig deep to beat Widnes after they were down to 12 men after just 12 minutes. England forward Brett Ferres was sent off after after referee Richard Silverwood spotted the Giants forward punching Rhys Hanbury.

The loss of Ferres led to the Huddersfield trailing 10-6 at half-time, but in the second half they outscored their opponents by four tries to two for an important win that keeps them within touching distance of the top Super League sides.

“It was a bit of lunacy from Brett and he will cop his medicine,” said Huddersfield coach Paul Anderson.

“He apologised to his team-mates and fortunately for Brett they dug deep. The referee had no choice but Brett has a squad round him who work hard for each other when adversity strikes.”

Smith sees positives

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Wakefield fell to their 16th loss on the trot when they were beaten 32-12 by Catalan Dragons.

However Brian Smith, who was in charge of just his second game of the Wildcats, believes he saw positive signs as he bids to turn around the team’s fortunes.

"In the main, I'm proud of my players, they were extremely difficult circumstances today," he said. "The heat was significant; some of our boys were quite courageous today. I'm pretty happy with the efforts that they put in today to stay in the contest.

"I thought Tim Smith was quite outstanding again today for us, he was probably the best player for us last week along with Mika Simon. Today I thought they put in very good performances.

“I also liked Jon Molloy who came off the bench today, he did a good job for us."

Video Ref for all

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Salford fans would have been calling out for a video ref after they saw their side fall to a 19-12 loss to Wigan. Shaun Wane’s side scored two controversial tries in the second half to recover from 12-0 down to snatch a dramatic win.

Liam Farrell’s try was superb and made Phil Clarke’s Top five tries of the weekend – despite there being a question mark over his grounding. Dan Sarginson’s try also came under scrutiny as he touched down in tight circumstances after Michael McIlorum  dabbed a kick in-goal.

Salford were convinced they had it under control but Sarginson was adamant that he got a touch to it first and after consulting with his officials, referee awarded the try. A video ref may not have changed the result but would have been on hand to make sure the officials had all the info and angles to make the correct call.