I thought Farrell should have been penalised several times at the play the ball and probably even sin-binned for persistent offending yet didn't get spoken to at all.
I think it was also him that took Joe Mellor high and late about halfway through the first half after Mellor put a kick through. Another offence that was worthy of a card IMO and didn't even get a penalty.

Well done James Child, 1 game in and we're all talking about refereeing instead of Widnes' comeback.

Yep, what Farrell was doing in the tackle and not getting pulled for, was worse than what Cahill kept get penalised for and all of a sudden Cahill gets a recommendation off Cummings that he should be close to a yellow card for persistent offending!
Child put himself in a difficult position by sending AhVan off, one which if he had been consistent wouldn't have been a problem.
But due to the inconsistency after the incident, he has got slated and rightly so.

There was definitely change as to how the Saints game was refereed in the second half (at our place last season) but, I don't think that there is any deliberate
bias or instruction given to help certain teams.
As someone as posted on the VT, in terms of performance last night, Wgan were far worse than the ref an they certainly weren't told to favour Widnes

I thought he was poor in both directions. It just affected Widnes more.

There were plenty of late shots on kicker early on from Widnes that went unchecked.

I think to say that it affected Widnes more, is an understatement.
As for the late Widnes shots, it's about time clubs started picking up on the unseen niggling tactics the 'bigger' clubs use.
If they get away with it, fine.
Then if the 'bigger' clubs start to complain, something might get done and everyone gets treated the same?

What about the crowd, 3,000 from Wigan and 3,500 free tickets for a dance or something before the kick off to break a world record, crowd 9,000, what would it have been with out the 3,500 free tickets and no Wigan fans

I think we’ve got our own problems spectator-wise without questioning/worrying about other clubs.

Here's a clue to how it's done squire, just in case I'm not here to work it out for you, just follow the instructions



9000
-3000
=6000
-3500
=[u2500 [/u answer underlined.

I thought you would come back with this, but yes thanks for the maths lesson squire

Not questioning at all, or worrying just saying, but thanks for picking me up on this old lad

I dont think Phil Bentham was much better tonight...

Ive watched both games and if this is the standard for this year it doesnt bode well.

Think the RFL don't help themselves, they've gone half cocked in taking up the Aussie system.
Bentham awarded 'no try' for Swifts effort, when I thought he had a foot in touch but not when he grounded the ball.
The video ref made him look like a dick.
Get two refs on the field.

I thought the refereeing was good yesterday. The Sts v Catalan game could have got well out of hand and was kept under control well.

Generally good, but 'tackled in the air'? Wtf was all that about! Players are allowed to challenge for the ball, which is what he was doing.

I think it's fair to say that the game, and the referees, have started poorly on balance. This season will get better, much better!

Think the tackled in the air penalty was because in the air the Catalan player grabbed the saints players arm whilst he had just caught the ball and appeared to pull the arm.

The video ref obviously thought this comtributed to the saints player losing the ball. I don't think it was intentional but that's what I saw as the reason.

Personally, I don't think 2 refs would be any better than we have now, it's the quality of the refs that has to improve.
In the Widnes game on Thursday, the ref was about 6ft away from Matty Smith and his petulant kick at the Widnes player
but he was happy with what he'd seen.
It was only the intervention of one of the other officials that caused the sin binning, the ref was "happy" to let it go.

Having said that, who would want their job ?

Personally, I don't think 2 refs would be any better than we have now, it's the quality of the refs that has to improve.
In the Widnes game on Thursday, the ref was about 6ft away from Matty Smith and his petulant kick at the Widnes player
but he was happy with what he'd seen.
It was only the intervention of one of the other officials that caused the sin binning, the ref was "happy" to let it go.

Having said that, who would want their job ?

if you watch it in slow mo his hand slaps the arm which makes it go backwards which favours him' kind of going for the ball with the chance of the ball coming free.

I called this while watching game so expected that decision

If you're relying on Robert Hicks to advise you on correct decision-making, you're in serious bother...

James child having another blinder today!!! He hasn't got a clue!!!

Cas denied a perfectly good try because they haven't got enough cameras

I thought he was in danger of losing control prior to the sin binnings. Lack of discipline from both sides not helping though.

Based on last weeks sending off by the same ref Carney should have walked? I usually give the refs some slack but the inconsistency is beyond a joke they seem to go from one extreme to another. Maybe they over compensate for a mistake the previous week. For the record I don't think either was a sending off.

James Child set the bar pretty low last week - then failed to hurdle it today; Carney's attempt on Escare was a more clear cut offence than Ah Van, yet he deems a penalty to be sufficient. Manna from heaven when Les Cats do their annual 'Why the ref's hate us' video montage.

Did he make a single decision today that wasn't referred upstairs?