seems to be more and more occasions where the linesmen just stand there like a spare pr£$k when an incident occurs because they dont want to make the call which puts even more pressure on the ref, might as well go back to the old days and give any old tom dick or harry the flag like the amateur game if they aren't going to have the balls to make a decision.

From where I was sat, it looked as though he asked the player what happened, not the TJ

While not disagreeing with how bad refs are it is the touchy that are usually the problem - tonight though there were strange things going on - A knock-on that was clear to all in the the East Stand the touchy seemed to give it because we all told him to!! A change of mind by the ref and the touchy and the great MOMENT at the end. The ref tonight got a lot of things right - to the letter of the law - but was very weak overall. To many players mouthing which he could not cope with. At the end of the day

It was not a great game but 2 points to us and a moment to savour because of the way we won it. You cant beat a last minute victory

He was very poor,plain and simple. Turned a blind eye to all sorts of rubbish in the tackle and the play of the ball.

Cummins admitted recently that he would like to drop ref's down to the lower leagues after a poor performance but hasn't got the luxury as there aren't enough referee's. Unfortunately, the focus of last nights game is the ref and not the game.

Seems to me that the referees are given instructions on a weekly basis that highlight certain issues in the games in the weeks before. The refs then focus on whatever that is for the first 40 of their next game just about to the exclusion of everything else until they gradually get overcome by the confusion they've caused and go back to trying to ref as they see it. At the moment it's the hand in at the ptb and they're getting conned by players in possession trapping the tacklers arm. That will fade in the next couple of weeks and they'll be onto something else. The refs should have the experience and quality to ref as they see it. They haven't so it's reffing by numbers and it doesn't work. Problem is where do you get 40 or 50 quality officials from????? I don't like Cummins or his regime but I don't envy what he has to work with.

I think the issue about TJ's is interesting, however, I think sometimes it is a case of the ref saying I'm full time at this job and you aren't. TJ's give lots of input via microphones, but ultimately the ref makes the decision.

The TJ at the end didn't bottle the decision of coming on to report the foul on Lyne. The ref did bottle the mandatory sin binning of the crusaders player for the offence on Lyn. If you are late on the kicker you are binned.