Are we going to blame the ref every time we lose?

We lost because we were not good enough ball in hand. Regardless the ref made some bizarre calls.

It's ok saying we were not good enough with ball in hand but when you're on the wrong end of bad bad calls time after time it puts pressure on, forcing teams to be bad with ball in hand. Fatigue from defending constantly etc.

I hate saying a Ref has affected a game, but on this occasion the stinking blatantly wrong calls lost us that game. We had enough to win if allowed to play.

No.

At Cas we were beaten by a far better team...At Leeds we just didn't perform but ultimately we're beaten by a better team...At Huddersfield we totally dominated the game but somehow managed to have a nightmare 10 minutes and threw it away...at home to Hull it was a very close game that could have gone either way and don't think you could complain if either team had won...so that's 4 defeats absolutely nothing to do with the ref...

I'd even add to that and say in a couple of wins we've got the better of the calls...Salford at home certainly...

Today though I don't think you can criticise anyone having a moan because we were on the end of quite a few poor 50/50's and in a close game you can certainly feel it had a bearing on the result...poorest redf in the league for me...

id pretty much agree that the ref certainly didn't do us any favours today with a few obviously wrong decisions but what really killed us was our idiotic giving silly penalties away especially on the fifth tackle. you can't give a side like wigan easy yards after defending the full set. also to be fair most times fin would have converted those two goals and we would have took it to them in the second half a lot better. all in all though lets be honest with ourselves we just gave a strong wigan side a run for there money and theres not been many seasons that would have happened. so for me a good showing just got away from us. now lets get some of them to stick and get into the 8's

Comeontrinity - " all in all though lets be honest with ourselves we just gave a strong wigan side a run for there money and theres not been many seasons that would have happened. so for me a good showing just got away from us. now lets get some of them to stick and get into the 8's"
This sums it up for me plus we posted more points against Cas than any other team this season. Ŵe make mistakes, we give soft pens away, we lack creativity near the line BUT we're also playing some exciting rugby and we're growing in confidence. No team will face us this season thinking were an easy two points. I wasn't too disappointed with either result this weekend - did anybody really, really think we would best the league leaders and the world club champs?? We're a work in progress. Provided we finish higher than 8th and get at least a couple of wins in the super 8s I'll be happy. Onwards and upwards.

Comeontrinity - " all in all though lets be honest with ourselves we just gave a strong wigan side a run for there money and theres not been many seasons that would have happened. so for me a good showing just got away from us. now lets get some of them to stick and get into the 8's"
This sums it up for me plus we posted more points against Cas than any other team this season. Ŵe make mistakes, we give soft pens away, we lack creativity near the line BUT we're also playing some exciting rugby and we're growing in confidence. No team will face us this season thinking were an easy two points. I wasn't too disappointed with either result this weekend - did anybody really, really think we would best the league leaders and the world club champs?? We're a work in progress. Provided we finish higher than 8th and get at least a couple of wins in the super 8s I'll be happy. Onwards and upwards.

Wigan knocked on enough times in the last 15-20 mins for us to get in front.
We didn't take advantage and he pings us for a lazy lay on that leads to the winning try.
Only ourselves to blame.

The ref was terrible but we had enough ball in that second half to win by a couple of scores. We just couldn't turn possession into points.

Just about sums it up,Enough said

We didn't make enough of the many opportunities we had to put that game away - that's for sure.

But Mr Smith hammered us at some crucial times - I'd suggest he is still learning to ref at this level and at times, it really shows.

Interestingly the Wigan fans near us agreed with all his decisions!

Potentially new refs are still influenced by the names. Trinity were hammering the Wigan line for a number of sets and not one penalty, Wigan do the same and get several.

only when he deserves to be blamed.

We will never get those 50:50 calls at home when the ref has a lot of away fans helping him from the west stand.

We will never get those 50:50 calls at home when the ref has a lot of away fans helping him from the west stand.

Hard to look past his biases for that game, he's from Wigan and gave Wigan the 50/50s. We should have managed more from that game, it was our own wrong decisions in their 20m that ultimately cost us the game

He seemed very reluctant to give a penalty when we were two points behind and within kicking distance for things that he would have blown for elsewhere. A game of inches really. We played well, and if BJB's reach and been two inches greater, that pass would have ended up in his hand and he would have been at the other end of the pitch.

We weren't great but there was enough to show that we are a good side. Worried that the Warrington game comes at a bad time, because we could well look like we are hitting a slump if Wire win but I'm fairly optimistic.

Yes he was very reluctant to give anything when we were in kickable range and just 2 behind. It looked even more blatant watching it back on telly. But having said that we did have chances to win.

Yes...how he didn't give a penalty against Tautai for laying all over Huby in the 67th minute was criminal...I'm sure he shouted for him to get off and he took another 4 or 5 seconds to get off...30 metres out in front of the sticks...should have been a penalty and 12-12...for me then the way the game was going there would have been only one winner...chasing a defecit led to some dumb plays from us but we should have been at least level if he hadn't bottled that decision and one or two others...was he afraid of a possible backlash from Wane afterwards?

I particularly enjoy the Wigan 3rd man flop manoeuvre after the man has been held for at least 2 seconds, delaying the play the ball another 5 seconds allowing the line to be fully set for the next play.

It's a fine coaching art that if you do it every tackle, the ref can't give a penalty every tackle; therefore its considered normality so Wigan will always have the advantage. Well done Shaun Wane.

(The O'loughlin version of this was especially pleasant to the eye)

I wouldn't go so far as to call it bias - he just looks a bit naïve to me.

There were a couple of dodgy calls - their fumble was a strip where ours was a knock-on (Huby?) for example, when both incidents were almost identical; the only egregious one was allowing Tautai to impede Huby within kickable range - that was interference all day long.

What really cost us the game however, was failing to exploit the period when Gelling was in the bin, some silly last play penalties, and pat-a-cake tackling on some of their speedy backs.

Whilst it's disappointing to come away 0 from 2 over Easter, there's no shame in it; we played the current Champions and SL's hottest side - a win was always a massive ask.

I think both Jack Smith and Chris Campbell have gone backwards since their original arrival on the referee scene. It's almost as if someone has "had a word".

Add in the high-shot penalty that he moved back out of kicking range and to the point where there was a high-shot that wasn't blown for as play went on. He might say he was playing advantage, but why not give us the advantage of the penalty for the high shot inflicted whilst playing advantage?

I just had the feeling that he had the press conference in his head, where the coach of the current champions blasted him for costing them a point, and it just made him give Wigan a bit of slack that he didn't give us. He's only human, I guess, and there were other reasons we didn't win or draw, but it is galling.