I know that you're all expecting a thread complaining and whining, and I await Wigan, Saints, Leeds etc. fans complaining about this, but he was shocking tonight. Big calls gone wrong, Mr Thaler up in the box was shocking too, but what annoyed me most was these 2 big decisions. Firstly, we put a kick in, and Scott Donald (facing our sticks) hits the ball with his hand trying to catch it and it goes forward, Mr Smith says play on. I was expecting a consistent call when Paul Johnson broke down the wing, gave it into Vinnie Anderson who offloaded to Harrison? and as he is facing his own sticks, it blatently goes backwards and Smith gives a knock on against it.



Rant over.

fan ib blaming ref for loss shocker

i have seen worse

I thought we got a fair few calls that we shouldnt have and Leeds likewise......

Smith was of a similar standard to Thaler Last night i.e not very good, but didnt influence the outcome of the game...

I think the Standard is as poor as its ever been.............

full time refs.....????

that glady's mcguires try was a bit dubious too..
he seemed to let go of the ball for a split second and he thumped the ground in disgust because he thought he'd knocked on.

I think in slow motion it showed him just touching it down, I was more aggrieved at Harrisons being dissalowed. I will have to see the first Leeds try again as I thought that Hicks may have grounded it first.

I was watching the game on Sky and the Leeds man (was it Hall, I can't remember) got to it first but only just!!!

McGuire did lose control of the ball however regained it just in time to ground it, at full speed it did look like he knocked on however I think the VR decision was the right one.

Harrisons try being disallowed was frustrating in my opinion it should haven been allowed however I'm obviously slightly biased.

The thing that annoyed me with Smith tonight was the number of knock ons he gave when the ball had been ripped. Leeds were going for the ball in the tackle everytime.

you mean Mathers,

Thought Smith had a shocker,

He gave a wink to the crowd when he was accused of pleasuring himself.

Leeds fans were gracious after the match. ( the fans I met )

I think both (Brent Webb & Ben Harrison No Tries) were ridiculous calls it's almost like they are trying to limit the amonut of contact in the Sport the way some of these calls are going lately, Then there was the Senior "incident" that Phil [i"I Hate Leeds"[/i Clarke reffered to which was nothing but a dummy run that he claimed should have been a penalty!, Even Steve said there was nothing in it, Also i don't know if it was just me but Jamie Peacock looked like he had stepped offside during the Harrison "No Try", IMO There was nothing in the Dummy Run by JJB the defender had more than enough time to make the effort to try to tackle and Rob Burrow just found the gap superbly and once again Stevo didn't agree with the decision......

Unless I totally missed something but I think the worst call he did tonight was when your player kicked the ball forward to prevent it going out, only for Smith to give a knock on. That was just strange. However I havn't seen the replay so it is more than likely I totally missed something.

his arm came out and he knocked on as well as kicking it. must admit thought it was a daft call initially

Ah fair enough. As I said I only saw it as it happened. Still Smith was crap

to be honest watching it on sky as a neutral i dont think he was too bad at all. the main contentious decisions were dealt with by thaler. players dont help refs when they are reefing the ball out on the sly etc; some calls they are expected to make are nigh on impossible.

his general control was pretty good, pity about the constant dropping of ball from the players

All you had to do was hold the ball for 30 seconds and you'd have been the hero's of the night .... but when needed to help keep Leeds of our backs you just had to let em score

smith was a disgrace , the donald one made me mad the ref was cleary infront on donald when he knocked the ball on and he said it was backwards , i were frustrated with mathers for leed's first try should at least booted the ball out and conceeded a drop out instead of picking the ball up , reminds me on melli yesterday did the same thing and that led to a try but over all smith was shocking and even leeds fans would agree , were doomed if we get him as ref next week

your clearly right

Agree with everything you say. I think both sets of fans could list decisions that went against us.
Would put Smith's performance into perspective, it wasn't as bad as some of the players he was reffing tonight. Yes, Smith and Thaler made mistakes but I believe that they were honest mistakes. We need to give the guys a break.
Well played tonight I thought we were exceptionally lucky. Best of luck in the semi.

Mathers grounded it first couldn't believe the VR gave the try it had as much downward pressure as Smiths try in the 2nd half ,and the decision on Harrisons try by the VR was a disgrace as well ,to go on and lose by 2pts after that accompanied by Smiths ruling on Donalds blatant knock on and then give a knock on against Vinny Anderson for the exact same thing makes you think it was fixed I wonder if Smith and Thaler have accounts at Bookies ?

Yeah good point. IMO (and ok it might be an old fashioned viewpoint) but grounding the ball shouldn't just mean having a finger anywhere near the ball when it touches the ground. Video replays also make it worse. Watching play at normal speed gives a 'real' indication of whether the ball has been grounded or not. Neither Mathers nor Smith 'grounded' those balls last night.

So when we lose next week,will we be having another refs fault we lost thread?Really makes me laugh some of the comments I see on here.We got more decisions off Smith last night than we have had in the last 4 years (hes 1 ref I keep an eye on whenreffing wire games)

A couple of very relevant facts from last nights game;
1/It is not the refs fault if a team drops the ball or loses position.
2/it is not the refs fault if a manager decides to play a halfback at centre and a forward on the wing.(exposed twice last night,from which came 2 tries)
3/It is not the refs fault if 1 team wants to play for 80 minutes and the other does not.
4/It is not the refs fault if 1 team thinks twice in a match that the game is won and switches off
5/Sky games are notoriously dodgy affairs,where generally the rulebook goes out of the window.
6/Richie Mathers is not the great fullback,many make him out to be.Showed glimpses last night of his head starting to go again.
7/The gulf in class between Saints/Leeds and the rest,remains the same.

So it makes you laugh that someone has created a thread about Ian Smith, and you reply thus by saying "It's not the refs fault that this happened" or this happened, or this happened etc? I'm guessing you don't like it then when someone blames the referee for a defeat.

What I find strange however, is your comment at the end which says "he is one ref I keep an eye on when reffing Wire games". Why is this? If it always makes you laugh when people blame the referee for a defeat, why do you feel the need to scrutinise Smith everytime he referee's Warrington? Shouldn't you be focusing on the game instead of the referee?

Smith was decent. It was fairly obvious from where i was standing. All the wire fans were complaining and when i got home and watched the video then the ref was generally proved right.

People were even complaining about going to the vid ref which is stupid. if it is there then you may aswell use it.

Everyone went mad about Hicks taking 2 bombs and the ref was proved right.

The hicks decision from the kick off was a tough call but his hands were around his feet and you could see it wasn't a clear cut call to make.

My only complains would be Leeds tactics or reefing the ball out on regular ocassion, something hard for the ref to see everytime. and also the vid ref, mather hash and mcguires try were the same thing in my opinion and they should have both been given as grounded or neither be given as grounded.

The Harrison try was a harsh call but Clarke didn't have to be there.

Mathers had absolutly no downwards pressure as the ball was still rolling. Putting your fingers on the ball as it rolls does not count as grounding it. Mcguire grounded the ball as he stopped it moving as it contacted the ground, he pushed it downwards, Mathers brushed against it. And to say the match was fixed was laughable you really think all the desicions went against you?? Take your warrington specs off and watch the game properly.

HTH

I keep an eye on Smith from a betting point of view.Latchfordwolvesfan and les boyd is god know the reasons,of which I dare'nt print on here!
Statistics have stacked up oer the years,though last night we got far more than i was expecting.

Homer?