Sorry about that. I really, really did think you were going to win today. It's cruel to lose like that. As others have said, I know how it feels from Friday.

I was disgusted that Bentham allowed the game to continue when Huby was down injured. We started booing him along with your fans. Had we had our heads on right we could have scored from that set while you were defending with 12 men. Totally wrong.

I sincerely hope we didn't have seven tackles awarded to us at any time during that match. It would take the gloss off the win somewhat if Bentham was unable to count. I don't tend to count the tackles, just wait for the five to go up. At least our forward pass was called, anyway!

All the best for your next match.

Yep you had 7 tackles on the last play but that's not counting the god knows how many other errors and penalties he missed. The ref was appalling today and it's starting to become a serious problem. Every week at least 1 coach is bringing up the same issues and nothing is happening.

Chubs has a Knee injury-know more in next few days.Hes at LGI now.

what about one of the the goals cas kicked...one touch judge had is flag up the other one had it down.

But that's not necessarily a wrong decision is it?

One think it goes over, one thinks it doesn't, the decision reverts to the referee who obviously believed it went over.

Fully agree but as saints did last friday you threw it away in the last 30 seconds

well couldn't he have just given you 1 point then?

I listened on the radio and i am pleased with the effort the lads put in.

In contract to last Friday (i was furious), i was dissapointed but philosophical today....how many times have Saints done this in the past? (THAT try against Bradford springs to mind). However will we get to see the final set of 6 (or 7) on a highlights reel anywhere?

=#0080FFI wouldn't say we threw anything away, that suggests that the team did something wrong or stopped playing. They were defending the line on several occasions and eventually the pressure on our line was too much.

I thought we were the better team for large parts of the game today, whereas on Friday we were never playing particularly well, even when we were winning. We didn't seem to get any of the 50/50 calls today, apart from perhaps the conversion (which looked over to me).

Anyway, very proud of the performance. Bring on the Rhinos.

Are we sure this 7 set stuff is right? I know there were a couple of incidents in the game where Cas mis counted and ended up not kicking on the last, one in particular where Orr went mad at the ref and should have been sent off as I heard exactly what he said to him. It got to the point where Bentham was passing him messages through Hudson(?) rather than speak to him directly, waving away any attempt from Orr to discuss it. I know on those two sets the ref got the count right as I'm an avid set counter myself when it's tight like that.

What did he say that should've got him sent off then?

Was confirmed on the radio about half an hour after the game finished, Saints got 2 7 tackle sets (including the winning try coming on the 7th tackle) and Cas got 2 sets where they were 1 short.

saint's threw 4 tries away with sloppy handling.

Confirmed by who? Bloody shocking if true, Cas should formally complain.

I don't know where they got it from tbh but they were talking about the game and came out with "an interesting note just passed onto us....".

The RFL wouldn't do anything about it anyway, a few years back Adrian Lam scored the winning try on a 7th tackle against Wakefield and nothing came of it.

He used an f word rather directly, then a p word ending in k and linked it all beautifully with a couple of f words. It was quite funny as one of the noisy Saints fans behind us who spends the whole game balling at the ref stood up and shouted, "Go on Danny lad you tell him".

I think I used that same choice of words myself at the ref today too. I'm losing my rag totally with some refereeing this season. It's the inconsistency and total randomness that is annoying me. Cas penalised at the scrum, for what I could only imagine was breaking away too soon. I then sat and watched every scrum and Saints were always out as the ball went in. I predicted it at one scrum, and a stranger in front of me watched for it to happen and it did, he asked why we didn't get a penalty that time. I've no idea to be honest. Penalise one, penalise all. I understand refs make mistakes, miss things and even get them wrong now and again but when games are decided with inconsistant decisions it's not even funny any more. I'll admit it wasn't a James Child kind of performance (not saying he cost us on friday cos he didn't) but it sure is a poor one from Bentham.

Shame innit? The match was a good un tbh.

cracking effort from both teams today, also appalled at the referee as he is a complete goon.... i think we need more referees in the mold of Ganson, Hicks and unfortunately Silverdud as at least they all have the balls to stand by the decisions they make, be it right or wrong... my inlaws are wire fans and were appalled by ben thaler's performance in their defeat against hull fc... but they also said that wire were pathetic with their handling too!!!

The try was not scored on the seventh tackle as the ref wiped the tackle count clean.

correct. on the play on cas's left hand side before it was swung over to the opposite side. First of all I thought he's called a knock on but a speccie next to me said it was via a cas hand and back to one.

No problem with the try, a Cas defender played at the Saints kick through so tackle count was properly wiped clean. We may also have got lucky with the Dixon conversion which could have been judged to have crossed the top of the upright. However I genuinely believe we did not benefit from one other 50/50 call and was particularly unhappy with:-
(i) the ball spill leading to Saints second try
(ii) Bentham failing to call the final tackle and deciding to raise his arm after Cas' last play-the-ball.
(iii) Cas being adjudged to have somehow got a finger on a pass to Shenton which he subsequently looked to have palmed forward anyway
(iv) saints being awarded a scrum feed when the Cas player in support of a clean break was tackled without the ball

I think there were some bad calls and I haven't seen Terry's comments after the match yet, but in reality I think we had enough ball and enough quality to win, but we didn't. The 5th tackle thing, whether the ref signalled it or not, I rather think it is our own game managements responsibility to know, rather than wait for the ref to tell us it is the last?

We are in a wobble, we have surpassed our expectations in the first 8 games and now it comes down to if we believe enough that we are a top 6 side or if we allow ourselves to believe we were in a false position - the Quins, Wakey and Saints games were all mental, not physical and not refereeing problems..... The bubble of considence needs to come back.
In my view the game changer was when Danny on the 4th play went for a miracle inside ball the Mathers under too much pressure, the percentage play there is to find the floor and go again with a quick play of the ball at a disrupted defensive line..... That said Danny was brilliant yesterday and on another day Mathers pouches it, straight in under the posts and game over.....

It doesn't get any easier this week with Leeds, but we need to just believe a little bit more and trust ourselves to be strong enough if we play our own game.

First things first, nobody can question the committment of the players yesterday - that was one of our best performances of the season against one of the best and most creative sides in the league. The game was fast flowing, entertaining, exciting and overall a great spectacle. I was gutted to lose, but clearly not as much as the players were - they deserved to get something out of that game and Terry Matterson's post-match comments are spot on.

If Danny Orr said what he's alleged to have said to the referee, then it was wrong but who can blame him? The level of frustration from not only yesterday's game, but a number of recent games must be proving difficult to keep a lid on the emotions.

The only 50:50 we got yesterday was the conversion where the touch judges disagreed. As for the others:
[list[*I've no idea how Saints second try wasn't a knock-on. When the Saints player dropped the ball, he was clearly facing our posts and the ball went forward before it was regathered.[/*:m
[*Shenton's knock-on resulting in a scrum to Saints - mystifying as I don't believe any Cas player got close enough to the pass to get a hand to it.[/*:m
[*Calling the last tackle after the ball had been played was a terrible mistake and whilst people may say it's up to the players to count them, the vast majority rely on that call of "Last" from the referee as they're concentrating on other aspects of the game. That would've been extremely frustrating for the players.[/*:m
[*The seven tackle set for Saints winning try was a result of the tackle count being wiped after an attempted pass bounced back of Chase's arm whilst he was attempting to effect a tackle. He never played at the ball and the count shouldn't have been wiped.[/*:m[/list:u

There's a lot of talk about the Respect Policy and I suspect Matterson may have some explaining to do after his [url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/9465163.stmpost-match comments[/url, but in reality he is right. I've always been taught that respect is something that has to be earned rather than simply offered on a plate; yet here we are week in, week out being expected to offer respect in the face of what can only be described as complete inconsistency. This is a full-time, professional, collision sport. It's rough and it's tough and it's very easy for players, coaches and fans to become frustrated when the laws and operational rules aren't being enforced in the same manner accross the board.

If you consider the refereeing appointments we've had this season, less than half our games have been controlled by a full-time official. There are actually four very good, experienced, consistent referees in the competition at the moment but we've only had these for three of our eleven games so far.

If Super League is going to improve as a competition (3-second play the balls and all that) and become as fast-flowing as the NRL; then the teams that play that kind of game need to be allowed to play it. Yesterday was an example of the pace at which all Super League games should be played. Friday was an example not only of how embarassingly and shambolically we can surrender a comfortable lead against the poorest side in the league (oh yes they are and by some margin!), but also of how games can be levelled by the weaker team slowing the game down and being allowed to get away with it. We've seen it a fair few times this season now (versus Wakefield, Catalans, Bradford, Crusaders, Hull) and there's no wonder the players and coach are getting frustrated.

I agree to a certain extent but I was appraising Bentham's performance and that was an example of him not doing his job properly.