The point is that, the team know that the captain has been spoken to.
Very rarely, if at all does the captain actually go and speak to his team.

Even though the games weren't classics and I have concerns over where RL is going as a spectacle to watch...this is great news for SL. The RFL & Club marketing teams need to get off their back sides and get some promotion done. Any English success against Australia goes down well with the general public, and we need to make the most of it.

Yes , it's the next to last warning

I thought Warrington-Brisbane was a great spectacle, played at a high intensity.

Not everybody on the team will know what's been said between captain and referee though as they're too far away. We know because we can hear the refs on tv but the ref and captain in conversation can't always be assumed to be that the whole team is on a warning from players who are 20/30m away from said conversation.

It was the better of the two, but I still feel the game is lacking some flair these days

That's the captains problem , not the refs

I remember Sinfield asking a referee to give him time to speak to his team before restarting play, but I can't remember other captains picking up the obvious advantages in doing that.

Have you watched the NRL lately? It's turned into British bulldog.

Regards

King James

Cronulla and Brisbane will probably be happy to have got some pretty high intensity run outs before their season starts. We should try and organise something like our top three going over there to play next time. All our teams would be delighted to get the chance to go over and I'm sure pretty much all the Aussie teams would be delighted to play us over there.

I agree about the grounding of the ball but I was with Barrie Mc and my first thought was it had brushed the forearm of his left arm.

Their second disallowed try was a tough 50/50 call. If it had gone up as a try it would have been given as there wasn't enough evidence either way. Sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't. Course, if he'd have caught it clean and grounded it clearly in the field of play there would have been no need for the VR. If you're gonna drop it and ground it on the touch line you can't really complain if you don't get the 50/50 call.

Not sure what you're problem is with the last try. In this case even though it went up as no try there was clear video evidence to overrule it. You can't really argue with the lines on the pitch. Footage showed Burgess [iwas[/i onside and that he [idid[/i ground it. The VR has no choice but to give it.

Seems the Sharkies coach wasn't happy with the referee. He's looking forward to getting back to the 2 ref, sterilised, holding down, slow game they play over there.

There has been a large drop off of crowds in the NRL over recent years, and they wonder why.

I'm not on my own then.

I watched it last night and one angle seemed to show the ball hitting the inside of his left arm as he jumped but they only gave the video ref one shot of it and proceeded to show numerous replays from other angles which were giving him nothing.

The ball being on the line was 50/50. Nobody can say for sure either way and as it went up as a no try it clearly had to stand as that.

The game is much cleaner around the ruck, the game is much quicker and the refs are a million times more strict with loose ball and knock ons in the NRL.

But Flanagan is a sore loser like all Aussies. They had a couple of poor calls but nothing of game changing substance. Wigan weren't at their best but the best team won without a doubt.

Congratulations to both Wigan and Warrington both deserved their victories and they did themselves and SL proud.

Wigan were very good defensively yesterday - the Sharks were very rusty in attack, but Wigan just didn't let them play. I can't understand why the Sharks were going sidewards so much - with their pack, they should have just steam rolled Wigan around the ruck. Wigan played exactly the right sort of game plan to win and it worked a treat. Pains me to say it, but well done Shaun Wane.

The officiating was awful - the obvious try/no try decisions were one thing, but the inconsistent policing of the ruck and non-policing of offside certainly helped Wigans cause. There were times in that last 20 where Hicks only took Wigan back about 5 or 6 meters, and then when in their own 20 the Sharks got a couple of quick plays and the whole defensive line were about 3 meters in front of Hicks and no penalty. It was almost as if he was allowing offside as a counter balance to a quick PTB.

And Cronulla were constantly stealing metres by moving off the mark, they got away with numerous high shots and their winger should have been sent off for hitting Oliver Gildart late and in the head with his forearm/elbow as he passed the ball to Burgess for his second try.

I came away from the game yesterday actually feeling pretty hard done by with the reffing so I was really surprised to read comments stating that Hicks had done us plenty of favours. He refereed us in both the semi final and final of last years play off series and I didn't feel that way after either of those games and we won the lot so it's not like I felt that way yesterday because we got beat.

You seriously thought Wigan were badly done to by the Ref yesterday?

At the time yes but after watching it back it was very much swings and roundabouts. We got some calls for us and come against. I thought they got away with an awful lot during the game and it didn't look any different watching it back but then we got one or two calls go our way as well.

Our discipline was generally better then there's I thought and it showed on the penalty count. Do I feel we got the rub of the green? Not really, I just think we correctly came out on the right side of the penalty count.

Ultimately the referee had no bearing on the result IMO.

I don't think either team were badly done to - Hicks tried to let the game flow, he just did it with less alacrity than Bentham did the night before; he allowed both teams some leeway for the sake of a free flowing game.

For all the talk of the NRL being a superior comp - which it undoubtedly is - it's actually a very sterile and structured form of RL, with few mistakes and a heavy reliance on percentage plays and athleticism. And they do cheat at the ruck - it's just more evolved, as they've already clamped down on wrestling.

I think Tony Smith alluded to it in his post match interview when he said that Brisbane were quite predictable in that they don't start playing until they get in the opposition 30-20. The only time Brisbane attacked from deep was from the scrum in their own 10 which resulted in a try.

Pfft. No point with the concept. A series whitewash against 2 poor teams without even getting into top gear.

Scrap it. It's done.

Indeed he did - and both Wire and Wigan did a good job of nullifying the exit strategy of NRL teams, by crowding and bullying their big men; really good game planning by both SL coaches, to stop them getting into the area where they start to actually play.