At the moment he's just a body. He's about seventh or eighth choice prop and useful for squad rotation. i'm not saying he's at all good btw just that i can see why we might have him in the squad.

We won a playoff game with andy powell starting last year as well so i think we can carry jordan james.

Not the first time that's been the case either. He was the same at your place on Good Friday when Saints were breaking our line.

The match officials made a succession of errors last night which not only affected the scores but the result.
We were doing great until the Taylor knock on, which wasn't. That gifted Hudds possession when they should not have had it. If they scored through good play or poor defence to me that's irrelevent, they only scored because they were in possession when they should not have been.
If there is a procedure in place to help out the match officials when Brough kicks to touch and the TJ signals out on the full but then the VR crew help out by informing of the right decision, why did they wait until then?
I've seen in the NRL when a scrum is formed the ref is informed he's got it wrong they reverse their call to make it a correct one. If they can do it so can we, why isn't it being done?
After the last mess up involving the Giants with the Bentham no drop goal the match officials must surely now look at their match day operations.
We need a Captains Challenge and we need helpful intervention when the field officials have a decision plainly wrong.

It was Hicks who was awful last night. He gave the non existent knock on, gave the Hudds out on the full ( the only wrong decision that was overturned by going to the video ref) and miss the tackle on Bateman.

Whenever Wigan play he's the one official I dread being involved as we seem to get more than our fare share of poop calls.

He's awful.

The Hull KR game a couple seasons back where Bentham broke his leg, Hicks took over as ref and had a shocker that night too.

He was awful last night and his bad decisions certainly let Huddersfield back into the match when we were winning quite comfortably. It was quite alarming though the way we ran out of steam soon after and I think playing so many games is begining to show with some of the younger players. Whether this would have happened anyway, without the dodgy calls, is anyones guess.

I can't believe that you are blaming last nights defeat on the referee?



As a neutral I thought that Thaler had a great game for YOU against the Whinos at Magic weekend,but i never saw you all complimenting him afterwards for his performance?

Personally speaking i thought that you were easily 2nd best on the night and that the Giants fully deserved their win,you looked very jaded after some very tough games recently,your junior stand in's cannot be expected to produce their recent high tempo and quality performances for long periods of games

On a positive note,I still think you will make the GF this year though as you play a great brand off play off footy when it matters

Do you think the game was refereed fairly or evenly last night?
Wigan lost the game because they couldn't defend well enough, BUT Huddersfield were granted a big advantage with the calls.

If Thaler can take advice when the ball wasn't in touch then why was the same advice not given for the no knock and the no ball strip.

It's these inconsistencies that cause the problems with the fans.

It'll be very interesting to watch the refs call on twitter this coming Tuesday.

Was it was refereed fairly or evenly- yes giants had a couple of calls that went their way and they capitalised but the amount of offside and forward passes by Wigan (including one you capitalised on for your first try) that were ignored last night was -sognificant- and then the two swan dives to gain penalties- I thought for a moment the World Cup had started early.
Funny how when your team loses you only see the calls that go against you- all teams fans are guilty of it I'm sure.

is this for real? seriously?
he made some poor calls for both sides but is he really the reason wigan's wonderkids were beaten?
apart from the knock on he gave against burgess i don't recall anything else to believe he cost wigan the game or am i just being stupid?
no mention of a forward pass for wigan's first try or the numerous times he let wigan players not stand square or offside, or the times he was conned into giving wigan penalties by their players falling over at the PTB.

i didn't think he was that bad at all just the usual frustrations, but i suppose wigan fans would think a referee cost them the game because they couldn't use their usual tactics against us?

the turning point was the introduction of crabtree, patrick and ta'ai who completely dominate wigan's forwards from that moment.

How many times do I need to say it.Im not saying thaler is why we lost the game we all know the introduction of the 3 players you say raised your game.But 3 clear and I will specify 3 clear decision what should of gone our way went in favor of hudds and 3 try's came of the back of all 3.I can handle 50-50 calls going against us but all 3 calls went against us!!!

Which three decisions are you referring to?

Hudds were the much better team and their forwards were constantly breaking tackles all over he field, thoroughly deserved their win. However, the officiating in SL is dreadful. The non knock-on called by hicks leads to a try and then Ferres tackled Bateman off the ball and nothing is given, Hudds then go up the other end and score to more or less seal the game. I don't mind getting beaten by Hudds because they are a very good team, but the officials on Thursday got some basic calls wrong that changed the game.

In addition to this, it seems to me that during the last few years Wigan have a habit of turning in below-par performances before big games. Away at saints last year before the cup semi, Leeds in the last round before play offs last year and now this. From what Waney has said in interviews we have been targeting Cas for a few weeks now, let's hope we turn in a good performance.

Everyone keeps going on about ferres tackling Bateman- wigan made a break at that point due to ferres falling for the dummy pass and tackling the player he thought had received the ball! From where I was sat I thought he'd received the ball until I noticed Wigan were still moving ahead. The officials got basic calls wrong for BOTH sides. Those led to tries on both sides. Those calls did not affect the overall outcome of the game.

Usual tactics ?

Please enlighten me as you have a good recent record against Wigan so obviously these "usual tactics" whatever they are obviously don't work"...........we'll not unless it's a big game anyway

What was particularly annoying was watching Mr Thaler sneakily looking at the screen when it suited him. Very similar situations were being treated differently because of this. The Bateman off the ball tackle was spotted by everyone except the officials but Mr Thaler did not want to know. That leaves the fans very confused.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand the Huddersfield argument that Mr Thaler was fine because he was rubbish for both teams. He was a major factor in the outcome of the game. In that case perhaps we should toss a coin to see who wins. Mr T could be the .

Not sure what happened to my last post. I suggested that Mr Thaler could become the"ofthecoin" and what came out on screen was"nice person".
Only one of these statements was correct in my view.

Are people arguing on here that referees can’t decide the outcome of a game? Really?? Please enlighten me...

in wigan's tactics im referrring to the rough stuff they play, leeds got drawn into it at magic, we didn't, our defence for the most part didn't get sucked into falling for wigan's dummy run tactics which works well for them.

as for the ferres-bateman tackle, then i really don't see the issue there, bateman was ferres' man and he comitted himself to him presuming he was going to receive a crash ball, you see those in every game, bateman will probably do the same next week, are you really suggesting that changed the outcome of the game?
like i said the only decision i thought was harsh was the burgess knock on, and to be fair it was only after seeing the replay on the big screen that it was apparent what had happened.
i can't figure out what the other 2 decisions went against wigan that changed the game in our favour.

One thing I can't get my head round is that some incidents seem to get overturned by the video ref in the stand like the Brough kick out on the full yet the Ferres pass on to himself adjudged as a Wigan knock on wasn't! Why? They're both easy to see.

The inconsistency in many aspects of officiating at present is woeful.

They are on the take.

It has to be the only reasonable explanation for how biased and one side they are. No one can be that unintentionally bad

Give over! Haha!

It might have been a little tongue in cheek but it does baffle me how bad they are.

Surly they can't be that naturally incompetent right?

i look forward to you pasting this again when wigan are the beneficiaries of refereeing mistakes!