Bring back hanging and start with this guy!



I'd love to see that penalty count? I mean why be so biased in a friendly game i just don't get what his motives are, Wigan scored every try (barring Tompkins two) off the back of repeat sets or sometimes 3 in a row due to penalty’s it just killed the game tonight I’m very disappointed with the official.

Every match Wigan lost last season including friendlies was reffed by Mr Bentham, maybe its your turn this season!!

He is awful isn't he, spoilt a good game by blowing that fecking whistle! Was like watching american football tonight with the amount of stop start periods in the game.

Oh by the way i don't think we won a game under him last year and he was our ref almost every week it seemed like.

Worst ref in the league IMO he likes the sound of his own whistle, i just wish he'd lose the pea from it!!

The match officials looked rustier than any player.

Agreed.

The guy should be demoted i can't remember seeing the game flow once with out a stoppage?

It's all very well slagging off the ref. Does anyone REALLY believe that the refs are biased?

Surely the smart thing to do is to start to understand just how the refs behave and play to that, use it to our advantage - that's exactly what Wigan did today - knowing just how long they could lie on for - dare I say it - we need some smart coaching and let's play as professionally as some other sides do.

Yes i do by that performance tonight.

As hard as it is to accept you have to understand that we are 'Salford' and we never get the 50:50 decisions and more pens than the oppostion.

Whatever you think about todays peformance one thing you can be sure of it that Bentham is not biased towards wigan. EVERY game, including the pre season friendly he reffed us for last season we lost.

i don't believe that they are biased just inconsistent in the match, the lying on for instance as soon as we started it we were penalised for it, then he does wigan and after that he didn't bother with wigan doing it, but did us a couple more times. Wigans try right on half time clearly a massive knock on but the try stood. In the second half Wigan knock on I think gibson picked up the ball cleanly and was off to score pulled back for our scrum. Just some of the strange decs in todays match, now if it is to continue like this for the season there is no point in watching.

Are there any statisticians out there who could tell me the total penalty count for:against over say last 5 seasons with this `ref`.

I net its something like 30:70

I just feel he never has given Salford a crack & it seems deep rooted - Remember that Catalans farce he officiated in?

Only Hewer is worse for me.

Spot on Bigpev.

We need to get rid of this victim mentality, watch how different refs work, what they tend to pull up, and adjust how we play to what they do. I don't think they are biased (although with Hewer it times it can be hard to believe) but they are prone to incompetence (see Tompkins first try).

Iain,I agree with you about the victim mentality as we gave away two or three stupid penalties throughout the game,but all I ask is that the referees are consistent,you mention the first Tomkins try which the referee waived play on whereas the one that we picked up in exactly the same circumstances he called us back and awarded a scrum with our feed.

The penalties for lying on against us were no different than some of the Wigan lying on yet he appeared to penalize one side for most of the time and I cant accept as other posters have suggested that some teams know just how long that they can lie on for at the play the ball.

There was a difference between the two incidents though. In the first one he should have stopped play because Tomkins knocked on by getting a hand to the ball when it was passed. In the second one Wigan simply lost the ball. Bentham should have let us play on but gave absolutely no advantage.

To be honest the penalty count was pretty even from what I gather. I just think certain penalties were given that shouldn't and also there were a few back to back penalties that really hurt us. I thought he was really poor today!!

Oh i guarantee it wasn't mate.

That was because after the first Wigan knock on a Wigan player touched the ball before the Salford player picked it up, and as soon as that happens the ref HAS to give the knock on. Maybe you couldn't see it from the shed, but that was the reason.
From behind the posts I would agree that Tomkins first try looked like a knock on.

Just what I was trying to say - the refs are what the refs are - we need to accept that, understand it and try and use that knowledge to our own advantage.

On the lying on issues today, it would be very interesting to watch a video with a stopwatch and just see if our perception of being hard done to is actually right.

All that said - I think one area that could be massively improved is policing of forward passes - get the touch judges involved!!!!!

k well i guarantee it was!!! we were just penalised for stupid stuff, Sidlow got done a few times for holding down which was Harsh. I thought they scored a few tries which were a joke, but I thought all of our tries were nicely crafted tries!!

That's how I saw it too. Glad you've clarified the rule regarding 'playing advantage.' This was my question at the time.



Agreed, agreed and agreed. This habitual sledging of the ref wears a little thin. (We sounded like Bradford fans today. "fooooorward."icon_wink.gif I really doubt there's any bias from the refs and suspect it's about time we do our homework in order to get the best out of each ref, depending on their interpretation of the rules.

All the top sides seem to get away with slowing down the play of the ball/lying on, and being offside. But is that because the refs are bent, or because top teams spend a lot of time working on wrestling and movement in the defensive line (rather than just standing offside). Yes we are hard done by at times, but rather than moan we need to do something about it. If we want to progress, these are the types of areas we need to fine tune to give us an edge and make us more competitive.

I think wigan were very clever yesterday, any hint of slowing the play the ball down they were struggling and wriggling and giving the impression that they were being slowed down, whilst our lads just waited until they get off.

I think wigan need a little bit of credit as they look at different parts of the game to exploit! i.e 3 men in a tackle = more time in the ruck!

He was very poor yesterday but what annoyed me yesterday were 2 fans at the front of the shed, they were both shouting abuse at Malc and Highton, calling names at Patten and the rest of the players, both were quite elderly, one had a funny hat on and the other had a cap on with badges on it, both are an absolute disgrace to the club