I hear that Monsieur Alibert will be given the freedom of Warrington next week, after allowing Simon Grix to score a try on the seventh tackle, thereby gifting Wire a game they didn't deserve to win.

Most Wakey fans are being pretty circumspect about it, but I'm not; to have a match in the elite competition decided by a breach of one of the fundamental rules of the game is a bloody outrage in my view - it's akin to letting a footabll match be decided after a player picks the ball up and rolls it into the net.

I'm sure he'll get demoted for a couple of games, but that hardly helps us; points are difficult enough to come by this season, without the total ineptitude of a full time, professional referee nicking them off us.

I'll be marching on Red Hall tomorrow to demand that the match result is overturned and the points given to WTW.

Having watched them on a number of occasions they certainly do seem to get the rub of the green with the RFL

So he lost count, big deal. Having done a little bit of unofficial reffing I can confirm its harder than it seems.
Is it anymore of a heinous crime than any of the other reffing mistakes at the weekend?

Good luck Bren, don't expect any pies though they'll have been gobbled up.

You win some you lose some, take it on the chin and move on.

Although I'm livid with the "seventh tackle try" it is extreme to go to the RFL about it imo. Best we can do is put in a similar performance against Catalans and hope that we get rub of the green this time.

Counting to six is harder than it seems, for a full time, professional match official? Cool story bro.

Boo hoo

It was a joke.

I am a bit surprised at the casual acceptance of such a massive gaffe though; maybe my expectations are too high - six is quite a high number after all, it needs two hands and everything.

He is French, you lot should give him a break, I bet not one of you knows what six is in French.

To be fair to uncle Albert I can sympathise with the miscount . The officials have more than enough to do during the game with all the descisions they have to make . Having to count tackles at the same time only makes it harder . It should be delegated to the TJs . They appear to do nowt else .
Anyone doubting how difficult it is to count to six should try it next time they are spectating . It is very easy to get distracted from the count even when that is the only job you are doing .

It can be done on one hand in Warrington.....

There were rumours that Cas suffered the same fate in our Easter defeat to Saints last season. Wasn't there so can't confirm but I know a few people mentioned it.

As Al as said, all we can do is move on, it's gone. Nothing about the game is going to change. Having been at the game I don't recall much of an outcry at the time about there being seven tackles. I would say not many realised.
Had it been the case I would have been baying for Alibert's blood as along with the rest of the Wakefield support.

$h1t happens

Like people have said there is no way to change what happened, however the problem is ensuring this doesnt happen again. It undermines the game, and despite people excusing Mr Alibert I think its pretty damn awful. If it is the case that counting the tackles is too much responsibility for the ref then the touchjudges or someone should be accountable for it. Such a basic and fundamental rule of the game cant just be ignored every now and then, with a 'oh well' and move on. It costs teams points, and it isnt a difficult problem to fix so why not fix it.

Bentham gave St Helens 7 tackles twice and Cas 5 tackles once last year, Saints scored on one of those 7th tackles.

Adrian Lam also scored the winning try against Wakefield at Belle Vue on the 7th tackle once too.



Radio Leeds mentioned it a few times after the game.

Good god. Start of the second half vs. Hudds in Round 3, Wire get the ball.... Ratchford is tackled on the first, sky tackle count graphic shows 1st and then immediately shows 2nd. Then on the 2nd tackle, it shows third etc. Chris Bridge ends up being tackled and the ref orders a turnover (You can hear him say "are you sure?" on the coverage, i.e. the 4th official overrode him on the tackle count after the third tackle) ... Now, which is more embarrassing, an official getting a count wrong in a non-televised game, or officials' making a mistake because they relied on the Sky TV technology which is subject to just as much human error.

Having said all that, I would agree that Alibert had a stinker on Sunday - he seemed to get quite a bit wrong for both teams from where I was stood (the knock-on from the kick off before Westwood's try looked like it went back for me), but without access to the full video, I couldn't say for certain what he genuinely got wrong and what I simply didn't see properly from where I was stood.

Thank you - at least it's not just me; the bigger picture is that we have an embarassingly inept group of officials overseeing the weekly rounds of an elite competition, upon which millions of pounds and many people's livelihoods (as Royce Simmons will attest) depend - not to mention having a direct impact on the quality of my weekend.

We urgently need two ref's on the field, like the NRL, or at least touch judges who actually have some responsibility to assist the man in the middle.

I'm no fan of the two referee system personally, but the main argument against it is, we don't have enough top liine officials to fund it. If we did have enough of them, the likes of Mr Alibert, after his performance on Sunday, would find himself ousted for more than one game from taking charge of a top flight game.



The touch judges communicate with the ref via radio systems now, instead of signalling infringments/offside etc with their flag, I think it's a common misconception that they "do nothing". Maybe we 'should' go back to them using the flags, at least in addition to the radio, to let the fans know they're looking at and/or seeing things.

The referee's are certainly not great, but they dont grow on trees. The wages of referees in this country are less than those in Australia and it shows. Not as many people are willing to take the abuse and everything that comes with the job, and until that changes we cannot replace those who take charge of SL games. The ones who have more recently come into the top level refereeing are poor, Hicks, Childs etc. Therefore the problem also lies with the training and the way the systems work in this country, if the RFL want better officials and more of them, they need to find the cash to fund this progression for the good of the game. Unfortunately, as this has been the case for a while now it appears they dont have any plans to do this, and we will be stuck with the same old poop



Oh well, gives us something to moan about, us Brits love that

Widnes were once given a set of one by John Holdsworth in a John Player semi v Wire.

Wire kicked on the last, Widnes gathered the kick, went 80 yards up the pitch and JH ruled it the sixth tackle having failed to restart the count for the change of possession.

I don't disagree, but I do find it incredible that an organisation like the RFL can't do a better job around workforce development and succession planning; if there's a shortage of good, well trained referees in this country, as there clearly is, then it's surely not beyond their wit to create a development plan to address the problem? I'm required to do so in my own line of work and it's very definitely not rocket surgery.

It also wouldn't be a massive project to analyse games from the last few seasons to find out where the errors are being made, then target some work at eliminating the most commonplace ones; the incumbent ref's would, I'm sure, have something useful to contribute as, despite my frustration at being robbed of a victory against the best side in SL, I'm sure they don't do it on purpose.

Maybe I'm an idealist, but I believe that most problems in the workplace that appear to be performance related can often be solved or at least ameliorated, by a bit of process re-engineering; it does however take some will and usually, there are resource implications - maybe that's the problem?

kippax legend!

I'm with you on that one. A lot of the time the refs and assistants are missing things not because they're blind (as we usually accuse them of from the terraces in the heat of the moment), but because either their positioning is poor, or the also-likely case of all of them looking in the same direction. For example they could all find themselves looking whether anything 'untoward' is happening during/after the tackle is completed, instead of paying attention to the defensive line being onside - or vice versa.

IMO there is no need for the pocket referee system from the NRL, just a clarification of clearly defined roles and responsibilities of each official on the field.

Although it isnt easy to be the governing body of an elite sport, the RFL do come across as somewhat incompetent at times. Every fan has an opinion on what they think is wrong with the game or what needs to change, but I think everyone would agree the standard of refereeing needs to improve. I fully agree the RFL need to do something, but how can us, the fans, get them to do this? In looking at the sport they are governing, they should be aiming to improve every aspect of the game which would include refereeing, however this just isnt happening. They will probably say well we have had an increase in referees, more full time officials blah blah blah, but although that is good it is not enough, nor does it focus on the quality of referees. IMO they need a fully committed, well financed programme in place controlled by people who know what they are doing. Give referees higher salaries, this should encourage more to follow this path. Make the training and experience more challenging and thorough to increase the standard of referees. Once these two things are developed and there are a greater number of elite officials, not only should they be better refs they can also be accountable for decisions. If they cock up one week, another ref can take their place which doesnt happen at the moment.