One example is when the ball bounced off charnley and out of play and wigan got the scrum and scored off the subsequent set.

Lets hope it does not come down to a ref mistake if its tight.

That was Bentham.

How?

When he was in the Club Wembley?

i just f*cked up. i apologise.

FAIL!!

But back to the topic, the referee. Does it matter?

Turley, Roby, Hicks, Child, Alibert, Thaler. 3 not quite at Saints V Wigan or Leeds V Wigan level yet and t'other 3 not quite at Cup Final Level yet.

Bentham, Injured.

Which Leaves Ganson & Silverwood. The reaction wouldve been the same either way. And If one of the other 6 had been chosen we'd all be scratching our heads wondering whos ass theyd kissed to get it.

Next year I wouldnt be surprised if we see Thaler or Alibert (If he can learn to count) in a big game, after the games theyve had last and this year.

thaler has been the best ref by miles this year hence his appointments

Absolutely. And how anyone can compare him to the likes of Roby, Child, and Hicks, if beyond me.

Thaler not getting the job and Silverwood getting it, stinks to me. They haven't even been close in performance levels. Thaler is way above.

Ben Thaler has been the pick of the bunch this season but surely he screwed up his chances of landing the final when (during the Leeds-Wigan semi) he failed to go to the video referee for the second Hardaker try after McGuire had clearly knocked on. There were other mistakes the like of which are around in most games regardless of officials - but not going to the video referee (even though it was Ganson) was a huge error.

Silverwood took the other semi so one or the other was always likely to get the final.

Curse you and your common sense. It's all bribery, corruption and probably some sort of occult practise. Don't you see?

I've yet to see a reffing performance that I thought betrayed bias in 20+ years watching RL. I've seen mistakes (some bigger than others), and I've yet to see a ref who doesn't make them.

In short, not bothered who the ref is. Not interested in "he hates us" type bleating. I doubt he does. Why would he? Did Gary Hethrington run over his grandmother? Probably not. He's probably got other stuff to occupy his time instead of making voodoo doll effigies of Kevin Sinfield.

thought it might be as they usually pick one of the two referees that did the semi finals and had a bad feeling it would be Silverwood over Thaler. Pretty bad appointment from a Leeds view as the relationship between the Leeds team and Silverwood has seemed very frosty dating back to that WCC when Senior slated him and we often lose discipline more when he's in the middle, away to Wakefield a few weeks ago a recent example. Its as if just the sight of his face gets the Leeds players wound up.

Silverwood is the worst pick for Leeds, not least due to the ongoing grudge ever since (or indeed before) the 2010 WCC.

Thaler would, of course, have been the best pick both on the basis of his being by far the best ref in 2012 and the, not unrelated, fact that his player management skills are miles ahead of Silverwood's and players do not end up engaged in a war of words with him throughout the game. His penalty counts tend to be low too - partly due to that better player management.

Absent Thaler, Ganson would have been a fine pick - we've had run ins with him in the past, of course, but so has every team. When he isn't having one of his occasional crazy days he is still an excellent referee.