I see it was another fantastic half time tea talk what do they gtive the players sleeping pills

Disagree.
I thought Catalans were poor first half and could only improve - they did, and with the help of some "strange" decisions by the ref, we hardly had the ball second half.
We could have scored more in the first half, the break by Adamson should have led to a try.
Still - 100% effort will keep me going to the games. You could see how much the players wanted the win, and Stapleton certainly made his feelings known to the ref - unfortunately it cost him a red card.

A committed effort from the Reds tonight and ultimately I thought we were robbed - how the ref claimed that Cashmere had his elbow on the ground when he clearly was only down on his knees I'll never understand and a couple f other occasions where Catalans were gifted posession courtesy of Mr Bentham.

Who was reffing mate?

phil bentham,
referee was poor throughout the game if you take all decisions into account, there were some decisons in particular which were dubious to say the least, cash had his elbow on the ground, but it was not the ball carrying arm, macgilvray got smashed when he had (and if only) had the ball in one hand.

this all added pressure but i feel the french were far to strong for us in the 2nd 20mins of the second half

FWIW i thought jeremy smith had a good game this week and even in the first 20 mins of the game it was evident that myler should not play again at least next week, if not more, STEFAN DESERVES HIS PLACE AT HALF BACK!!!!!

fitzy looked good too, i think he needs another start, he ran the ball in well defended quite well minus a ball that he left to bounce but, certainly merits himself to be playing next week

It doesn't matter what the team talk was about, you cannot beat a team of the standard that Catalans are with officials acting like tonight's ones did.

Bentham was in my opinion an absolute disgrace and it appears to me that there is a conspiracy of some kind to ensure that if possible Catalan reach the play offs by whatever means at the expense of any other team.


If I had carried out my job as Bentham and the officials carried out their's I would be on a disciplinary, as three Catalans scores came from incidents where Salford should have had possession and no coach or team can play or coach against bad decisions such as we saw tonight.

The officials were inept to say the least, for instance Salford are in possession with a play the ball, Bentham says move, Catalans do not move but hang on, Benttham says play on and this happened throughout the match.

All I ask is that Stuart Cummings views a video of the match and takes it from there.

Phil Bentham.
I was pleased with the Salford performance tonight despite the result, it may not of been pretty but it was at least a team effort, something we`ve not seen since the Saints game.
Pretty much agree with the other posters regarding some of Phil Benthams decisions.
I was pretty agrieved at the challenge on Mark Henry/McGilvray ? am i right in thinking he put the that on report and then gave Catalan the head and feed at the scum ?.( I was spitting feathers etc and only came down from orbit when the scrum had formed)

I don't know which is more frustrating for me. Not being in a position to see the team in the flesh this season or hanging on you guys to tell it the way it was during the game.

I have to say that when some of you guys post remarks about poor/strange reffing then I find out it was Mr Bentham tonight I think that is about par for the course.

I find Bentham very frustrating to watch reffing (for all the other SL sides as well as us).

He appears to miss the obvious things and then pulls a one-off decision for petty stuff like incorrect play the ball/moving off the mark etc.

As for his video reffing that has been on the TV this year: it just smacks of over caution and incompetence. The time this bloke takes over judging the obvious should be sending us to sleep.

Mr Bentham started ok (reffing us v Catalan away I think), and has got progressively worse since. There is also quite a lot of arrogance crept into his reffing too.

I never thought I would be saying "come back Steve Ganson all is forgiven".



I think Ben Thaler is a cocky turd too just for the record. I'm certainly no ref hater but maybe Justin Morgan was right.

Back to the point of an uninspiring half time team talk, I couldn't agree more.
You only have to look at our recent second half performances to see that the right things arent being said at half time after we start the game so well.

Another great lead.. then boom we seem to fall asleep.

I dont think for one minute the lads under performed or didn't give a 100%. I was rearly impressed how much were coming on but its as if other teams coaches figure us out in the first half then they go in at half time and say the right things.

I know for a fact McCrae tends to bring the mood down at half time I just hope the lads can carry this effort into our last few games.

PS I thought the shed was much more lively an supportive tonight and hope it continues. We need to get behind the players and give them the support they deserve.

You have to give Catalans some credit....they are a great second half team.

Anyone remember the Challenge Cup 4th round this year - Bradford were 26-0 up with 37 minutes remaining and lost 40-38.

you play the position officials put you in, bad decitions by officials effect the flow of the game and the result in the end.

Catalans always come good second half.
Also did you see the players on their bench, all huge forwards.
We had a fired up committed team coming at a depleted tired team, only one winner there.

The officials had f*ck all to do with the outcome of the game.

u serious
absolutely shockin the officials where last night

I am serious. The fact that we went to sleep in the second half and Catalans woke up meant we lost the game. Nothing else. And I'm sick to f*cking death of coming on here after defeats and hearing people whinging about the officials and blaming them for the result. We need to look at our own players' performance and attitude above anything else.

the fact is we dint fall asleep in the second half we show the same commitment and passion as in the 1st half and if you have ever played rugby league defending 5 sets one after another with the pack catalans have got would definitely take it out of you... and you name me one player in the 17 man squad whos performance and attitude disappointed you did u not stay till the end and clap the players off u not see the look on there face they was absolutely GUTTED!!!

I totally agree with that we dont perform for 80 minutes fact an official gives penalties for what he sees and are disapline is poor the team and coach only have them selves to blame a good team would move on at 12 nil up and go on and win the game we do th opposite

Oh, OK. We didn't fall asleep. We didn't allow Catalans back into the game. Catalans themselves didn't come good in the second half. It was all down to that nasty referee and his assistants. Thanks for pointing out the error of my ways.

Disagree with you there gt, and im sick to death of these people who are so up there own as**s that they dont know a good game of rugby and say its our falt that we didnt win , if you thought that salford went to sleep in the second half then you need to stay out the willows club or not drink so much, because after most of our games you have chatted some sh*t and usualy i just laugh at your post , but man if you thought that bentham was ok last night then you realy are the prat i think you are. lol

I think the ref had a shocker but I also think that we at least nodded off, if not went to sleep. I think we could, and should, have killed the game off in the first 10-15 minutes of the second half (if not by half time) but we looked too complacent when we had chance to attack - almost as if they believed that Catalan would lnever come back from 12 down.

Did I say it wasn't a good game of rugby? No, I didn't, it was a good game of rugby, very enjoyable aside from the final outcome. As for saying it's our fault we didn't win... We were 14-0 up and in control. And then, suddenly, we looked like a different team. We made mistakes. We took our foot off the pedal. We let Catalans back into it. I'm not saying Bentham was perfect, what I am saying is that you cannot blame them for Salford giving away a 14 point lead. Someone else has already been on this very forum and said that he's seen the game again - and that a lot of the decisions were actually spot on. I've not seen it again myself, so can't comment directly, but it just goes to show how opinion will differ depending on who you support.

Finally, if you find my posts laughable, think I talk sh*t and that I'm a 'prat', then fine. I won't lose any sleep over it. I like to think I give a constructive, unbiased opinion on our performances. And that includes being able to say "we should have won, we didn't, that's our fault, nobody else's." If you'd rather read the other reactionary, one-eyed bullsh*t that flows on here after games (which also seems to fit in with your poorly constructed posts) then feel free, go ahead.

The fact that you've come to the conclusion that I don't know a good game of rugby when I see one speaks volumes.

My poorly constructive posts ......... ok lol

yes we should have won, but we didnt, but if you thought that we fell asleep in the second half then i stand by my first post, as you clearly wasnt watching the second half of the game, the effort was there but the ref made some realy poor decisions witch didnt allow for the game to flow as it did in the first half, so what makes you think that salford fell asleep in the second half, dont just say they fell asleep and leave it at that give us your assesment of the second half ? might make interesting reading

As for someone said that they watched the game again so it must be true the ref was fair

dig deeper my friend.

Well dont

How did we fall asleep? We made mistakes. We didn't put Catalans under any pressure once we were in such a good position. We didn't show the cutting edge we had in the first half. We couldn't get the ball towards their try line. Some of their tries were far too easy, the defence went walkabout on a few occasions. Flat passes. Passes to the ground. Dropping the ball. Not running onto the ball. Being far too slow at the play the ball... Or is all of that the referee's fault? And, of course, we've not touched on the fact that Catalans seemed a completely different side in the second half. They came out looking much, much better and we couldn't cope.

As for someone else saying they watched the game again... My point is that said person wasn't a Salford fan and they had a different viewpoint about the ref - the team you support and whether you've got anything riding on the game or not can affect your view of the officials' performance. It's also very easy to not see what your team's done wrong when you're at the ground and then, later on, when seeing it again, realise the decision was right.

Now, I'm not saying Bentham had a perfect game, far from it. He had me scratching my head on many an occasion. But to blame him for the defeat? Give over. In fact, someone next to me last night said he thought the referee was f*cking useless, but wasn't blaming him for the result. In fact no one around me was blaming the referee and could see that we'd let ourselves down. Again.



Fine. I'll leave you and everyone else to blame the referees for us being down near the bottom of the table, shall I?

Yeah, I'll keep digging. Apparently.

EDIT - One final thought. Was anybody complaining this much about Bentham when we were winning comfortably? Thought not.

GT we couldnt get the ball in the second half because the ref never aloud us to, so how could we play the same style of rugby in the second half as we did in the first ? I have never been one to say the ref lost us that game before when others have said he did, but last night that was the case, yes the french were stronger in the second half but helped by the poor desisions from the ref so why would you say salford fell asleep ? they tried as hard in the second half as they did in the first.
As for the guy who watched the game AGAIN has he put it ,was he there and thought i must watch that game again to see if the decisions were right, would love to know how he got the game so fast as i cant get a copy untill monday

Dont know where you stood in the ground but every body around me said the ref lost us that game, maybe i need to stand where you are standing and you stand where im standing then maybe we will both have a diffrent view of the game and once again we can disagree