The point for me is not that Salford would necessarily have won with a better refereeing performance - chances are Saints would - but that they didn't get a level playing field and the game was ruined for the neutral.

Big games are often decided on small moments. When the ref repeatedly hands possession and territory to a team like Saints in error and then doesn't do the same for Salford, he's influencing the result. This is one of top officiating teams, they simply shouldn't be missing shoulder charges, offside at the scrum, heads in the tackle, etc. The Dudson call was ridiculous. Yes, ball strips/knock-ons can be very hard to officiate, but somehow these decisions mostly went against Salford.

Salford fans have (mostly) been fine because 99% were at the game, probably happily drunk, and you simply don't see these small things live. A few I know were loving life last night but have watched the game today and are feeling rightly hard done to.

On current form they had a real chance of winning - as demonstrated when they eventually got some possession and territory. Saints struggled to handle them. All we wanted was the ref to be invisible and a fair shot for both sides, and that did not happen.

BTW whingeing about the ref isn't being disparaging to Saints - they've been simply outstanding all year and deserved to end the year as champions.

Your club would never do this and Jackson Hastings is definitely in the saints mould. I know this because of the exemplorary way that saints as an entire club conducted themselves after the challenge Cup defeat.

You won fair and square and you deserved it after a fantastic season, but to denounce 5 or 6 terrible calls as faux controversy after the challenge Cup fallout is laughable and quite frankly further embarrassment on your fanbase. Chris kendall stank last night but overall Hastings is right, the calls wouldn't have affected the the result. They would however have improved the spectacle massively and contest as a whole. Salford deserved better and so did the neutrals. The first half was fantastic to watch, from both sides, the second half for me was completely ruined by the referee.

I said at the start of the season we would win SL purely because the coach of the year amassed a fit and athletic pack who can all play for 80 minutes with no drop In line speed.

There is no room in SL for props like Flower these days who can only manage a couple of drives a game. You need players with stamina and high work rate

Can't believe some are trying to question the try from the scrum.

You can't obstruct if you have the ball in your hand.

It was a great piece of creativity.

The fault I have with the try from the scrum is that the scrum shouldn’t have been given! Percival stole the ball from Inu and then dropped it.

No you are wrong the man in possession always has responsibility to hold the ball. Percival competed but inu dropped it.

Loose Head and Put-in 5. (d) The player putting the ball in shall not hesitate or dummy [iand after putting it in he shall immediately retire behind his own pack of forwards[/i.

It's nit-picking but we either follow the laws or we don't. Lomax never retired behind the pack and was therefore offside. His presence and movement drags Lolohea away from the scrum in defence. We've seen tries disallowed for offside players being within 10m after a kick - even players who had zero influence on events but who are offside nevertheless. The same applies here.

Lomax was no were near the scrum.

Congratulations to St's, they have been head & shoulders above the rest of the league this year.

Commiserations to Salford, but what a fantastic year they've had.

I'm a little disappointed the cartel continues to rule the roost, but at least two new teams have made the final in the last couple of years.

I don't know how I'd feel as a Salford supporter today, obviously brimming with pride for their achievement, but tempered with the possibility it may be a hell of a long time before they get another crack at it.

That's not strictly true though is it Steph, you weren't posting on here at the beginning of the season were you, perhaps you'd have been better posting as leeBron or Ruin I'm not quite sure which without checking, but either of them would have more credibility than the little porky you would have us believe as Steph

First miss by the ref was the high shot on grace, the second was 43 minutes into the game. Ashworth putting his head in on the player on the ground.

Should have been a penalty

He fed the ball and moved wide, taking Lolohea with him. He was a clear foil for the inside ball back to Taia. Yes, a nice move.

But he did not retire behind the pack at any point. So he is offside.

It's indisputable.

Are you going to penalise every scrum I'm watching the final as we speak and every scrum half never goes behind the pack.

Also I think you mean fages not Lomax

Whatever, the dude with the headguard. Presumed it was Lomax.

Anyway, not the point. Do we adhere to the rules or not? Especially when his presence influences the defender and helps a try be scored? He was offside, simple as that.

Follow the laws of the game, you must be joking.

We can't even have players using their foot @ the PTB. The most basic rule in the damn game and we just ignore it.

Every play the ball this season should have been penalised.

The ball is never played with the foot and the opposition always have at least one player offside.

that would depend on the ref as I've seen them in the past take them back 12 yards, true on the play the ball that area has been allowed to change to speed it up

No scrum half as retired behind the scrum for the last 15/20 years, since it became the norm for the person in the loose forward position (usually the hooker,) to pick up the ball and pass it.

Same as nearly every kick off someone is in front of the kicker.

Shame instead of commending a brilliantly executed set move from a scrum, the agenda is to try to find a reason to blame the try on poor refereeing.

Great play for all of the tries scored by both teams last night.

Surely Percival was offside for his try.

I get it, it's basically pay back for mcmanus comments.

It opened the door to all this.

Absolutely.
St Helens introduced absolute venom into the discussion of referees this season and they deserve everything they are getting with their hypocrisy being eposed today, rightly overshadowing their final victory. Kendall's middling performance would have been the subject of grumbles little more had it not been for the context of what Saints did to Hicks.

You live by the sword, you die by it. Hopefully this will teach them a lesson for their disgraceful behaviour after the cup final, behaviour which we have still to see the sad final end of if rumours are correct.

This has been a fantastic read lmao

Certainly hasn’t overshadowed anything for me, if it helps others to come to terms with Saints as blatantly deserved champions that’s great.

So that makes it ok then.



Look, even I'll admit some rules are open to interpretation in open play in the name of letting the game flow. We all know that. We'd see 50 penalties a game otherwise.

But - in a try-scoring decision at a critical juncture in the biggest game of the year, this is supposedly the best officiating team in SL, with the tools to review everything. They missed one of their own laws, and that simply isn't good enough.

You take this as anti-Saints or as intending to tarnish the win. It isn't (from me, anyway), but too much went wrong last night and the game was massively influenced by it. I'm not commenting again on it, there really isn't much point.