It's all very well demoting Ganson to Championship - but when you see the calibre of the so-called up and coming refs, you realise why they have to stick with the likes of Ganson.

Very disappointed how he refereed the ruck and it would seem that the 'incorrect PTB clampdown' either hasn't been mentioned to Roby or it has already gone out of fashion after 4 games.

That said we didn't help ourselves and the pack was well beaten.

We were very poor in the opening 25 minutes. Add to the fact we couldn't get our hands on the ball and Saints started like a house on fire really added to our downfall.

Second half was a more evenly matched game. Blaming the ref is pathetic. We weren't at the races today. Yeah he was inconsistent but we've known that for years with RL referees.

He was bad. He deserved everything the crowd gave him today.

As bad as Roby was today , and he really wasn't up to the job , some of the bulls defence was worse than amateur in the first half . better in the second half but too little too late .

Indeed, if anybody was. But nobody has. This thread is about the referee and his worryingly inept display. It isn't discussing the respective performances of the teams and is not relevant to the result..

They were clearly not. How did we get pinged every time in the tackle? Yet Saints wrestling perfectly ok? What a joke.

Are we too obvious or something?

I was under the understanding that making the ref's full time was supposed to make them better and more professional, well there was no evidence of that at this match.
Whilst we were not at the game in the first half we were absolutely killed by Mr idiot with the whistle, offside and holding down by St’s it seems, never happened only the Bulls were guilty of this ☺ when in the second half we managed to get the ball over our in goal area Mr Idiot gave a goal line drop out!! Bewildering is all I can say.

The key was Saints where not wrestling on the floor. It was hold the man up and then drop him.

2nd half Bradford had caught on and made sure they hit the ground quicker, forcing the wrestle.


The ball was on the line and so in goal, just as it is if it's a try.

He wasn't on the line he was well over it, I stand directly along the line from there and had a perfect view. Saints laid on the tackle and slowed the ptb down consistantly, that was one of the most one sided games from a ref I've seen in a long time.

Don't get me wrong he wasn't the reason we lost but being hammered on possession and territory doesn't help. He was so one sided it was a joke.

I did joke that Roby was James' brother. But on that performance, it certainly looked like it. Saints could do no wrong.

No it was well over he line. Another bewildering decision. And people wonder over the neutrality of referees sometimes.

Q - What was the difference between the Bulls today and the ref?

A - After a disgraceful 1st half performance the Bulls slighlty improved after the break

This is clearly a new directive for weaning in Refs. It is obviously hard to ref a full match so he was only reffing one team and then taking a break whilst Saints were defending

Not at all, the Saints players tactic that people were complaining about was the constant and obvious slowing down of the PTB which was never penalised.

I agree we slowed the PTB, but when you hold the man above the ground the tackle is not completed until held is shouted. This takes longer when you hold the man from putting his ball carrying arm to the ground.

If you look at the tackles where Bradford got pinged, these were mainly from the likes of Gardner. Now Gardner has one ability which he excels at, which is when tackled he hits the deck pretty quick. This does not allow the wrestle as rather than struggling in the tackle he goes down body first and is immediately getting up to play the ball.

We had a similar experience in the opening game against Huddersfield, where Huddersfield dominated the tackle and made it very difficult for us to get out of our 30m.

We were going in with men to put the player down, rather than control the tackle and hold them up, but it seams we have learned from that opening game.

Tatally agree with whats being said,but why didnt we get the video ref from the sky game (silverwood i think),whats the point of 2 full time refs at one game and a part time ref at the other!!

Tim Roby has been demoted this weekend.

Is it actually demotion, or just rotation?
We actually have more refs than we need for each round of weekly fixtures now, don't we?

Hunslet v Donny a demotion? Shurely not. Anyway, we have the brilliant Mr Child, so presumably everyone is chuffed.

Second week running that our referee has been in the Championship for the next game.

Co-incidence?



Childs should be afraid for the week after

I still dont see what Ganson did to get demoted, he always ref's like that and no one had bothered before

In fact there was never any official word that he was "demoted". As said, there are more refs than gigs, so maybe he simply made way to let the excellent Mr Roby improve yet further (if that were possible) with some more SL experience.

I see Mr Ganson has the south of France jolly this week, so he ain't exactly in any doghouse, is he, while the rest freeze off their nuts.

Maybe that why he went down a grade, so that he would get to go to france more often

Is it a coincidence that Stuart cummins has stepped down as refs boss today?