was always going to be him or silverwood.
FWIW i thought bentham had a good game on friday

I didn't watching at the game, but when I watched it back he wasn't as bad as I thought.
That's often the case when I'm bound up in all the excitement.

I wonder who he wants Wire to play against in the final ? First we had clubcall, now we have "Benthamcall".

I just want consistency if he's gonna penalise us at the ptb do it for both teams the same with high shots etc etc that was my biggest complaint against him friday night he just didn't penalise both teams consistently for the same offence imo.

As he is from Leigh, which is part of the Borough of Wigan, you may well ask

I'm not aware that he penalised either side for incorrect PTBs.
Both sides were equally guilty of this on Friday, JP scarcely ever plays it properly & LMS must have copied his style.
That is one area (of many) where the NRL is streets ahead of us.
i do agree though that consistency of rightly penalising the head high stuff is paramount vs Wigan.
I don't believe that either us or Saints were too bad in this regard but I recall the last Wigan game where virtually our entire team ended up with cuts to the head.
I know that Hansen suffered too but that was as result of a clash of heads with his own player, I didn't see too many (if any) instances of that being the reason for the Rhinos wounds.

Wigan V Leeds with Bentham in charge:

12-May-07 ..... SL 12 ..... CC - 05 ..... Home ..... Lost 18 - 22
24-Jul-09 ..... SL 14 ..... 14 - 22 ..... Away ..... Lost 28 - 10
29-May-10 ..... SL 15 ..... CC - QF .... Home ..... Won 12 - 10
27-Aug-11 ..... SL 16 ..... CC - Final .... Neutral ..... Lost 18 - 28

I dislike Wigan with an unhealthy passion but do not remember them being any worse than usual. The usual being SO'L putting in a few, pulling his ugly, disgusted face when penalised, & MMc always borderline. Apart from them Wigan are not a physically intimidating side. I never get the 'they got away with all match' argument about any alleged offences. If they are, do the same.

Sorry OF i meant o put in "intefference" at the ptb he pinged Meli once (1st half)and was right to ping Ablett but before that ST's were all over us at the ptb imo especially Soliola.
Now i agree we all want the game to flow but i dont see how ignoring numerous offences by 1 team (after Melis)then penalise the other??
Again i have no qualms whatsoever with the penalties we conceded and could have conceded more but IF you choose to penalise one offence than it has to continue throughout for the full 80 imo.

That was arguably the most shocking big match performance from one of our officials in the past decade.

however, games vs wigan in the play off semis is

WLWWWL

Who says we will get the Grand Final. After all, Silverwood is refereeing our game and Thaler is video referee.

Define play-off semis there for me and in any case why would that sequence end with a Leeds loss?

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Leeds V Wigan in the SL Era Play-Off series (not including the 97 Prem meeting)

11-Oct-98 ….. QSF ….. Away ….. Lost 17 - 4
24-Oct-98 ….. GF ….. Neutral ….. Lost 10 - 4
04-Oct-02 ….. EPO ….. Away ….. Lost 41 - 18
10-Oct-03 ….. FE ….. Home ….. Lost 22 - 23
08-Oct-04 ….. FE ….. Home ….. Won 40 - 12
05-Oct-07 ….. FE ….. Home ….. Won 36 - 6
26-Sep-08 ….. FE ….. Home ….. Won 18 - 14
12-Sep-10 ….. QPO ….. Away ….. Won 26 - 27
25-Sep-10 ….. QSF ….. Home ….. Lost 6 - 26
28-Sep-12 ….. QSF ….. Away ….. Won 12 - 13


Played 10, Won 5, Lost 5, Pts For 188, Pts Agst 187 Avg Scr 18.8 - 18.7

So history suggests Leeds should win by a tenth of a drop-goal.

Jesus.

Could barely get more even.

Strange how fans of all clubs think officials have it for them. Even the Wigan hillbillies are convinced there is a RFL conspiracy against them.

It was semi final in the traditional sense. Last game before getting to old Trafford or get knocked out. With most recent results first

Once I'd done the full list I guessed the sequence was in what I would consider to be the reverse order.

__________

No matter how bad Bentham is tomorrow he's going to have to go some to be worse than Silverwood was tonight. Don't think I've seen any team this season move off the mark before playing the ball quite so blatantly or as often as Warrington did tonight.

Of the two I hope Bentham gets the final now irrespective of whether it's Leeds or Wigan that get through. First preference would have been for Thaler but that's not going to happen.

At least now Huddersfield can claim it was a conspiracy against the 'true champions!'

Quite, in the first half it was particularly bad. Every time Warrington were getting quick play-the-balls was on the back of the previous set where their player would take 2 or 3 steps forward, thus removing the markers ability to 'tighten up' around the ruck.

Cooper, Morley & Bridge are the worst at this. Strange really, I thought it was an offence, and yet for one team to do it so often and for most of the year - perhaps it's now allowed.

wigan were masters at this. move half a pace left or right, play the ball and markers not square.
teams have countered this by the first marker standing very close so the grounded player can't move

I am not concerned about who is the ref tonight. I hope Bentham has the courage to police the play the ball area. Whilst all teams lay on and hinder the tackled player Wigan are the worst culprits.
The main ploy is to keep the tackled player embraced as he atempts to play the ball,this tactic was a Mc Guire move ,no doubt imported from Australia.

I accept that Maguire brought in some pretty unsavoury stuff, but delaying the PTB is not new. If Wigan do it, get away with, then credit to them. Just copy it, teams & coaches should be bright enough.

I don't know whether it was the McGuire influence but O'Brotherinlaw had a handy stumble-forward-and-drop-to-the-deck when so much as a finger was on his shoulder at the PTB.
Brought him a few penalties.

To be more specific with the Wigan skulduggery at the ptb, my complaint is when the tackled player regains his feet the Wigan defender wil still have his arms around the tackled players upper body.
The outcome is a poorly executed ptb or even a knock on at the ptb. In the former it slows play down this also after laying on the tackled player . This tactic slows down the quick burrow scoot from the ptb, one of our main attack thrusts.

Not quite sure where people get that Warrington are the worst for moving off the mark from. Both teams were at it a lot last night.

There are times when the tackled player can't regain his feet on the mark because he's left a defender lying in there by winning the collision. On occasions like that, he should be allowed to take a pace forward or to the side to take advantage of a strong carry. The alternative is that you have a slow, scrappy play the ball which leads to a penalty and disrupts the flow of the game.