Didn't Child keep his "proper" job when he went on the super league list?

Except it wasn't boring or turgid it was skilful exciting and fast , well Leigh were , unfortunatly Sheffield were crap really

As for infringements , there weren't many , as Championship clubs don't cheat as much as SL clubs

Doesn't matter any more. It means the same thing.

The thing is that, while several SL refs are not up to the job, the game is virtually impossible to referee. There is simply too much going on for one individual to police it properly, even if the 2 halfwits on the touchline, and two quarter wits at each end do help him out. That's why they have two refs in the NRL. If they relaxed the full-time rules and allowed part time refs as well then there might be enough refs available to have the two ref system. Hopefully between them they might then at least avoid missing the blindingly obvious, and it might sort the good refs doing an impossible job, from the just plain bad refs - like Mr Child!

I shall be checking the appointments before each game... and if it's being officiated by Mr Child, I shall not be attending. I am not paying £20 to watch him... or watch him ruin a game.

Yes it is very difficult when you have 26 players all che , sorry , pushing the laws of the game to their absolute limts to try to win the game at any cost

i didnt say it was. I said that few penalties doesnt equal a well refereed game.

The reducing quality of referees' performances, coincided with the appointment of Berry/Cummings.

Referees have always been rubbish , even before Cummins took over his overseeing job , ask the fans of any losing team ?

He reffed our preseason FRIENDLY against Salford and he absolutely killed them, 2 sin bins and a red, there discipline wasn;t great but it was no way as bad as he made it out. He continually blew up on the 1st tackle and gave another 6.

Last year Hull KR got 5 yellows and a red, James Child gave out 4 of the yellows and the red in 2 games. Were we that much worse in those 2 games then the other 26 games. He is whistle happy and really heaps pressure on a losing side, results where he refs have a knack of being heavily one sided results.

Neither did I

But it was

thats nice

Do you know why you are telling me this?

Telling you what ?

Uh oh, It seemed to have being building, getting more and more angry, taking more and more ridiculous standpoints but I think it has finally happened. We have broken starbug.

Not ' angry ' at all , I agree that a well refereed match isn't necessarily one that doesn't have many penalties , but in my opinion the ref at leigh on sunday did referee the match very well

What did you think I was saying ?

You can't break Starbug. He just keeps on getting up again. He's like the baddies in the Terminator films. (By which I mean 1 & 2, the last 2 aren't included on account of being total guff)

That is what i thought you were saying. Im just not sure why you kept on saying it.

If you dont know why I was saying it , why were you saying it , sounds like you're losing your marbles mate

i was saying it because it was my opinion. You then told me twice that it was also your opinion and that the game between leigh and sheffield was a good game. Something i had never commented on.

now that's just being CHILDish !

We've got him this week. FFS !!!!

I'd like to add 2 things:

1) We have never won a competitve game in which he has reffed (the Salford friendly is the only exception)
2) We have got him on Sunday!

This was also your opinion



Which suggestes that sometimes refs can let things go when they shouldn't , even in poor games , but the ref at leigh didn't let anything go , he didn't have to both sides were well disciplined and one side played some excellent RL

So we can have good games and bad games well refereed and badly refereed , which is nothing new or insightful , just common sense

so this is now the third time you are telling me you agree, is the a reason behind the repetition?

I think it comes back to this idea of "common sense" refereeing. James clearly knows the book inside out (surprised if he can turn its sticky pages anymore) but doesn't exercise any kind of "spirit of the game" into his refereeing.

Yes, offences need to be punished. Especially things like headshots, spears/throws, professional fouls, backchat, blatant holding down (and holding the tackler down, SAM TOMKINS!

) and persistent offsides to name but a few. But in a game like RL where there are a fair number of technical offences that can be committed, give warnings to players the first time around perhaps (you hear referees such as Ganson shouting out, "You're offside, Ryan!" or "11, you're not square!" for example). Minor offences, if not persistent, can be let go without a penalty sometimes, even if "by the book" it is a penalty.

As for ruck speed, which seems to be the main issue with Child at the moment, he first needs to talk to... every other referee. And Dean Widders rightly pointed out that referees should be visiting clubs in training to run through new (and old) protocols so that the players know what to expect too. Hang on - I thought they were meant to have done that over the off-season? Not according to Widders

Anyway, in the Wakey vs Cas game I didn't think any of the holding down penalties were really penalties.