I thought that Mr Childs had a really good game on Friday, really pleased for him as he has had to withstand some serious abuse over the last few years. I though he was possibly the best ref last season and if Friday was anything to go by he is looking at another strong season. Watching the game back on TV he got most calls correct and controlled the game well.

Really enjoyed watching the Wigan v Hull match as I thought the holding down / laying on was policed perfectly by the Australian ref. Both sets of players soon realized that they were not going to get cheap penalties for holding down and just got on with the game. The ref only penalized twice for holding down and they were blatant. Players stopped throwing their arms up in the air at every play of the ball begging for a pen, players stopped diving in the tackle trying to win a penalty.

Compare this to the Leeds Hull KR match, where Ablett and Cuthbertson won penalties for been held down, tries were scored of the back of these. In both instances the correct decision would have been to penalize the Leeds players for cheating.

For me its the blight on our game, and yet when we get to big games the English refs change their style and ref like our Australian friend on Saturday morning.

It's Child. It's Child. It's Child.

He had an awful game IMHO.

And there's the rub. Anything he did well, possibly 99% of his performance, was utterly undermined by one inexplicable, yet potentially game changing moment of madness.

How he could penalise Fifita for the PTB, when you look at every other PTB from the game, is beyond comprehension. Salford scored at least one try from a PTB that was just rolled and thus catching the defense dead in the water.

Refs can make mistakes, I get that. But that PTB decision is not an area where a top of the game ref should be making such an error.

Having watched the incident, its clear the marker had his hand on Fifitas collar preventing him standing upright. Teams like Leeds and Wigan have their players drilled to immediately fall to the ground in such circumstances and milk a penalty.
I know these are sheighthouse tactics, but something we must quickly develop in order to compete at the top level.

I am with Belly I thought he reffed it pretty well IMHO.

You might want to check with Pauli Pauli. Looks like a broken nose which means that must have been a very high shot. Don't suppose Child could give that one though as he ignored several high shots throughout so that would be being inconsistent.

From where I was standing and confirmed on TV, Fafita' shirt was being pulled over his head by the marker. A clear penalty to Wakefield and outstandingly poor refereeing which could have affected the result.

Extremely difficult job to police the ruck, the job is made easier when watching replays on TV. Refs make a split second decision, not easy and they will make mistakes, one or two mistakes in a match is pretty amazing. That said I do think that they should go hard on the high shot, again they will make mistakes and some clean tackles will get penalized, rather that than giving the benefit of the doubt to the tackler.

Good game ?? I think Belly is being ironic.
What about the "soft" head high calls against us and the high shot on Johnstone that got nothing.
Child has been shocking for Trinity since he started and although you could argue that some of this is "our own fault", he couldn't wait to penalise Trinity and yet seemed almost heart broken when he finally pinged Salford.

I think perhaps it's a case of pre-conceived conceptions.

I remember chatting to Ian Smith in Perpignan once, and he commented on a couple of Wakey players who were very messy around play the ball. Brett Ferres was one. Fifita's style is a bit scruffy, because he's a big guy trying to regain his feet quickly, so perhaps he assumed it was that, whereas in this instance it was a Wakey penalty.

I do think refs get a bit starstruck. In the Leeds and Hull KR game on Thursday, Leeds got a few 50/50 calls their way, and it is always the big teams that get that. Remember the first Wigan home game last year. The ref was determined not to give a penalty in line with the sticks despite blatant holding on. It would have been a penalty had Wigan had the ball and chasing the game.

And the Leeds of the last decade have always been floppers and divers. Abblet is one of the worst. And McGuire will go flat on his back with fluttering eyes at the merest whiff of an off the ball push. It has always tainted them.

Spot on and the reason is simple, most current refs are attention seekers who deep down wish to be the star of the game and doing what he did very nearly managed it.

Sadly no he isn't

Thought it was just me noticed this, 2 Salford players went high on him at same time obviously heard about all the hype about his size and wanted to make some kind of point, it was blatant and childish but as usual the officials didn't see anything wrong.

Fifita hasn’t played the ball correctly since he came here. I’m not sure if he’s playing for the penalty or a quick play the ball, I’m not sure why he plays for either when we’re in front and have field position with just a few minutes to go. It cost us the game at Warrington last season.

The shot on Pauli looks deliberate and doesn’t miss. There supposed to use the VR for foul play now and he would have served 10 for that. That and the Fafita incident were stupid decisions.

Watching it at the game I thought we had all turned up to listen to Mr Child's Whistle concerto. After watching the game on the telly I still think he didn't let the game flow.

The penalty against Fifita was shocking.

Totally agree

For me it's pretty obvious he gets up as quick as can and plays the ball as quick too, to get us momentum from the 3 defenders that are usually in the tackle and if they try to hold him down he's quite good at getting the penalty. I'm sure like other players in SL, it's a habit how quick they try to PTB, obviously, it can backfire but rarely does.
I've said before I'd rather him play that way than a slow get up and PTB like some Props do.
As for not playing the ball correctly, how many players in a match actually do it to the letter of the law nowadays, just about everyone seems to just roll it between the legs. You see some get away with playing the ball while still on one knee quite regularly.
As has been mentioned though this last game, he shouldn't have got penalised with Salford players literally all over him pulling on his shirt, Trinity should have been awarded a penalty.

fifth is marked now as a player who does not play the ball correctly- he is also marked as a player that tries to get a pen every time he gets tackled.

so have some game smarts and understand you are 6 in front with 1 min to go and just get up and play the ball slowly to take it out of the refs hands!!!

So you're saying it shouldn't have been a penalty the other way round when the Salford player had hold of his shirt, he should have milked the penalty and fallen forward, plus he played the ball like that all game? Like I said before if he's marked for not playing the ball correctly about 60% or more of other SL players should be, same with getting up to play quickly, it's the name of the game.

Sorry but that's rubbish. His play the ball is about average but hey let's focus on one incident from a year ago, bizarre.

I don't know why Child has a gripe against us but he pings us for stuff he doesn't ping other teams for. I watched the Saints away game from last season recently and he was on Fifita's case in that game too. He's like a hawk for any slight discretion in our play around the ruck but lets other teams get away with all sorts. I dread it when I see he's the ref and I'd say he's one of the worst, can't stand the bloke.

Ask Richard Agar about that.

Thaler and bentham are by far the best referees.

Hicks isnt very good, but he is consistently not very good to both sides. I guess that's a silver lining to a very dark cloud.

Child is poor, Kendall is atrocious. hewer is dreadful, the list goes on.

I actually think he's improved massively over the years - but he is a pedant, and teams must be aware of that; he does far less of the coaching/persuading of players that Thaler will for example, but I'm not necessarily against that - the issue is with consistency.

I do believe however that he is very harsh when he referees WT, and always has been.