their home town club.
A few dubious decisions today...all going Saints way.
These can happen in any game but if the referee is not seen as completely neutral it can be very frustrating.

I don't believe all the decisions went saints way, If anything when i watch Ganson reffing saints, i often get the impression they lose the 50-50 decisions which leads me onto agreeing with your second point that refs shouldn't ref their hometown club as accusations (rightly or wrongly) will be made. There is no need for it to happen so why not just take away all the controversy in the first place.

The scrum that Roby scored from, any ideas why it was St. Helens head and feed? The Hull player was in touch when he caught the ball so the kick found touch and should have resulted in Hull's head and feed, I thought.

That's not correct.

The ball had bounced before he caught it.

Yeah, but it wasn't touched by a Hull player before it went into touch so it should have been Hull's head and feed.

It would be two complicated.

Ganson wouldn't be able to ref Saints
Silverwood and Thaler wouldn't be able to ref Wakefield
Bentham wouldn't be able to ref Warrington

Then there is Championships so Warren Turley couldn't ref Leigh, Hicks couldn't ref Oldham, Craig Holleran or Jamie Leahy couldn't ref Batley

Funny, we managed for over 100 years without a problem.

I don't think Ganson is biased towards Saints.

Just had a poor game tonight.

Refs get too much abuse they are not helped at all my the touch judges, who get paid for doing nothing really.

If anything having Silverwood reffing a match involving Wakefield would benefit the opposition as he would be conscious that people would be going to accuse him of favouritism.

Well it's certainly going to be a lot harder to appoint games.

For example, if Wakefield play Warrington then that takes 3 officials out of contention.

Im sure it used to be the rule that you couldnt ref your home town club. Was changed in the last few years.

Eh?

Whiting had the ball whilst standing on the line, therefore in touch...

That only stands when the ball is caught on the full.

For me the only wrong call he made was the 'taken out in the air' that lead to the 2 points. And even that split the commentary team, a little off thread topic but is anyone else impressed with Jon Wells' examinations?

Silverwood is a crafty bleeder and says Mirfield which is pretty much Huddersfield but has always been able to ref Huddersfield games.

It worked before and I don't know why the scrapped it, so what if Bentham can't ref Warrington, I'd be ecstatic if he couldn't ref Cas games.

That decision was correct.
However...
Whiting did not ground the ball over his own line...a try followed the drop-out.
The double knock-on near Saints line should have gone to Hull feed.
The equalising penalty was an incorrec decision no matter what Eddie and Stevo said.

Another ref may have given these decisions but justice should be seen to be done by a neutral ref.

Whiting was in touch when he caught the ball. Therefore the kick found touch and play should have continued as if the ball had hit the touch line itself (with a Hull scrum).

Isn't that only if it is taken on the full?

I thought Ganson had a good game today. The penalty for the kick was a 50-50 in slow-mo, real time it would be difficult not to give it.



I like him. He a little bit differnet, but good analysis, and doesnt seem to everyone off like Phil Clarke.

I'm pretty sure he did, albeit unintentionally

Then why did they create that silly rule about players making the ball dead by sticking a foot over their dead ball line? Fullbacks started defusing kicks that were bouncing in the in-goal area by stepping over the dead ball line and then touching the ball. This (prior to the silly rule) resulted in a tap on the twenty as the ball was judged to have gone dead in goal without being touched. Same principle applies to in-touch.

It wasn't a double knock on. It never left Fosters hand until the saints player knocked it forward from foster's grasp.

The ball hit Horne and then whiped his hand away so was not a knock-on also why twice Hull players off side from kicks but not Foster at the other end when exactly same happened?

Oh and don't you just love Gansons run across O'Melley then [ i've got to stand somewhere answer.
Even a player knows you don't move across a tackler thats obstruction.

Salty you`re a crust muncher so obviously have a hidden agenda.......