It's all well and good moaning about the ref today but it was like every match something that was within our control.

I've said it before and I'll say it again it's time to make the refs get changed in the pavilion so that they have to walk through the crowd.

See the way Cobb hung around today looking worried about walking down the tunnel? He knew he was going to be on the receiving end of a well earned and deserved barrage of abuse.

The thought of doing it and being completely exposed to the home support would put him off reffing in the pretty despicable manner of today.

I know we are all a bit wary of being called sore losers on this one, and there was a poor performance from us after what we've seen 2 weeks ago, but Cobb has to be seen as having ruined that match. It could have been a great contest and the refereeing was incredibly one sided, the quick taps being a prime example that particularly smarts

Give over.

Only a completely biased idiot can come away from a match where we were outscored ten tries to two, and try and pin it on the ref.
Widnes outclassed us in every aspect of that game today, Cobb had nothing to do with the result.

Guess who the ref is on Saturday....?

This. I disagreed with a couple of his decisions, but then I'm biased and he isn't.

Nobody (that I have seen) is remotely pinning our defeat on the buffoon Cobb.

Everybody is saying he ruined the game, and we will never know what sort of a game it might have been over 80 minutes, because of his antics in the first half. He DID ruin the game. I went to watch a rugby match, where a competent ref would remain pretty anonymous, be even handed, and let the game flow. Instead, like thousands of others, my concentration became centred entirely on the cretinous nincompoop in the middle.

I do wish people would stop conflating the very justified diatribes against the appalling refereeing with any suggestion that this caused us to concede 50. That's not the point at all. Cobb probably didn't have anything to do with the result. He did however have everything to do with the ruination of what could have been an enjoyable game to watch.

How exactly did he ruin the game? By calling our forward passes forward?
I'm struggling to think of any decision Cobb gave that could be seen as him 'ruining the game'.

The commentator on Radio Leeds did seem to think the Ref made some tough calls against the Bulls, especially
in the first half and start of the second half.

My problem with Cobb was he reffed our game differently to the way he reffed the Halifax/Salford game the day before. If he'd reffed our game like that one, I would have enjoyed it more.

How can a ref change his style? or did the teams change the way the game was played? Was Cobb mentally tired after 2 games in 24hours? Or was it the linesmen?

TBF isn't it the linesmen who give forward passes?

Obviously it's subjective. I'm not a ref moaner and generally feel flat/marginally forward passes are part of the game. However, he routinely allowed Widnes more time in the tackle and their players were 2/3 metres in front of him at the 1st and 2nd ptb more often than not. This allowed them to restrict our go forward and by definition changed the nature of the game. Whether it changed the identity of the winner is irrelevant, it changed the basis of the contest. And like others have said, it's annoying and the last half an hour was boring because the Bulls were demoralised and felt an already difficult task was made impossible.

Linesmen seem to be neither user nor ornament. Its very seldom you see them do anything.

If I'm not mistaken didn't the 3 clowns, Hicks, Childs and Cobb all officiate at Wembley last week, touch judge, video ref and spare ref??

They are the worst of the worst, although Cobb is out on his own has the worst ref

I might ask my gaffer to watch Cobb ref a game and next time I make a mistake at work, ask him for a pay rise. It obviously works for some people

Maybe it's a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy. We see its Cobb and we expect the worst and we then think we see the worst. As he is supposedly a Leigh fan, and got an earlier "glowing endorcement" from James Lowes, it could easily lay the platform for a conspiracy theory. People were burnt at the stake for less.

It's all a bit hysterical is this Cobb bashing. He's not the greatest sure but in my opinion yesterday was down to our own failings rather than his.

We'd have needed a lot more than 50/50 decisions to go our way to have got a win.

Ok, so Cobb is not the best referee, but he hardly cost us the game.

As for forward passes - loads around me were shouting"forward" at least once in every Widnes set, you can usually tell if a pass if forward if those directly in line call it so - rarely did this happen. Plus very few people know the rules -

A PASS CAN ACTUALLY GO FORWARD SO LONG AS IT IS THROWN IN A BACKWARD DIRECTION (ie momentum rule)

For what its worth I think RL has generally got excellent referees, if you watch a game on TV after seeing it live you get a different view of decisions - most they get spot on and as said earlier, have a go yourself if you can do better.

I couldn't disagree with you more. I think the standard of officiating in rugby league is atrocious and undermines our sport.

If you look at all the rules then it would be virtually impossible for any human being to keep tabs on everything that is going on. Even with the benefit of a tv replay it's difficult to keep tabs. You've only to take the PTB as an example to see how many offences can be committed in the immediate vicinity. Trial by tv replay takes no prisoners.

Correct. We were dreadful yesterday. Cobb is being used as a scapegoat for a extremely poor second half performance. Widnes' 1, 6, 7 and 9 were on top form yesterday. We were beaten by a better and faster team. Put it to bed and move on.

Cobb blew for our two key "forward passes" instantly, himself. There was no delay for a TJ call. It was clearly him

It doesn't help to attribute "he cost us the game" views that nobody, so far as I can remember, has actually claimed. The thread is just bemoaning how appallingly bad Cobb was, and indeed it was very largely one-sided.

Widnes almost certainly would have won anyway, but we'll never know for sure, because the game we should have been able to watch never took place, instead it was the Cobb Mystery Spectacle.

He really isn't. If he is, then who by? I can't work out how people keep jumping to this strange conclusion.

Plus, your remark the "we were dreadful" is also wrong. We were dreadful in the second half, but despite Cobb we were extremely worthy of the huge round of applause we got going in at half time. We couldn't get to the levels of the Salford game, but had put in a damn good first half shift, in the face of adversity.

Cobb was atrocious yesterday, simple as. He shouldn't be anywhere near a game of this standard.

IMO he's clearly effected by the negative criticism from the clubs fans whether its conscious or not. Yet he seems to be the RFL's golden boy.

Anyone who has playe dthe game will know that the referee CAN change the game.

Widnes were constantly off side (2-3m in some cases) which results in lack of momentum.

Add this to Widnes allowed to get away with forward passes yet Bulls penalised. Sames rules for everyone doesn't count in his book.

Game was completely ruined and the players were out on their feet at the end due to sheer amount of defence they faced.

We may well have lost (probably would have because Widnes had too much size and quality for us) but it would have been a lot closer.

Don't mind losing when the efforts gone in which I think it did. Shame Silverwood got injured.

I have made the point on other outlets that most Bulls fans are in agreement that Cobb's officiating was dubious. Most Bulls fans are also in agreement that the Bulls were awful. The two are mutually exclusive. The fact we got thumped doesn't override how poor he was, so we do have a right to moan at his performance. The two things are not linked, however, so the ones calling us to be quiet on the Cobb front are probably misinterpreting others here.

That's my view anyway.

Thought we were outplayed in every department by Widnes, which I guess many of us largely expected - they were too big, too strong, and had far too much class for us, but, of course, they are a Super League side and we're not.

I'm disappointed that the RFL didn't show the game a bit more respect, given that 'every second counts', [or whatever.. and send a Super League referee. I've forgiven him his inexperience before, and I accept, it isn't totally his fault as the RFL keep chucking him in to games which are clearly way beyond his competence level, but he was truly awful yesterday. I can forgive poor decisions, after all there are 'dodgy' decisions every game, but not when they all go one way and ruin what should have been a decent match. Not that it changed the result, but it was almost as though he had an agenda, set before kick off, course that can't be true, can it?