Ring rust - ouch, sounds painful

Tbh, I think most SL teams will s h i t themselves looking at this Leeds pack and Wire are no exception.

This game will be the 6th time in the last 10 Leeds/Wire games he's been the ref, it's one of his gimmes of the season.

Achurch would seem the biggest absentee. Unless he's injured again he's dropped behind Walters.

I know games arnt won on paper and Wire have been on fire in pre season. But that Wire 19 looks pretty thin.

It's a game that can go either way. I see us only getting beat through individual brilliance rather than losing the battle.

Expect a full run out of the new rules then.

We had Child preseason v Leigh, predictably awful he was.

He missd two drop balls in the tackle on the same set to which we then scored, if i was supporting the opposite side i would have been livid.

Maybe we've been given Child as a form of handicap?
Seriously, his problem is has apparent inability to develop any form of rapport with the players.
He gives the impression that he thinks he's somehow better than them.
He talks down to them, not to them.

He played v Fev on Sunday. Against backdrop of injuries to ward, jjb and mulalley - that is a long way down the list.

Not a great child fan but appears to be reasonably poor to both sides

He does. I remember Child reffing us at open age level when he seemed 14/15 years old (he may have been a little older) and he was very much like this then, as he probably saw it as the only way to get respect and his point across to the old veterans and virtually all the players who were much older than him. Always seemed like he had a big point to prove and that hasn't changed as he has moved up the ranks.

Pretty much. The job of the referee should be to work with the players to enforce the laws in a way that makes the game both better to watch and to play in.

Some games you won't be able to do that, because sometimes players don't want to work with you for whatever reason. Too much adrenaline or emotion, unable to cope with pressure etc.

The problem with Child is that every game seems to be one of those where he can't get players to work with him, mostly because his communication is limited to only when absolutely necessary.

Listen to the likes of Thaler, Ian Smith when he used to ref, even Bentham sometimes. They'll have a little laugh and a joke with players during breaks in play, smile at a player when he tries it on pleading his case. Child does none of that, he's like some sort of humourless drone.

It always feels like it's him versus the players, rather than them being there for the same reason.