I thought it was wrong to ignore the tackle, but othe than that I thought Hicks had an excellent game, and for me has been by far the best referee over the last twelve months.

On the disciplinary, yet again a Wigan player appeals and gets his ban reduced. This is a regular occurance that has set a dangerous precedence. Wigan exploit this to the hilt continuously.

Who said they were allowed? He got a ban which clearly says they aren't allowed.

You might consider the ban not long enough but that is a different debate.

Ah, didn't see that it had been reduced. Apologies.

Yeah I agree on this. Would scrap it and make all decisions final or at least limit the amount of times a team could appeal a bit like when you've used your EGP you can't use it again.

Agree with that, maybe not the last 12 months but probably for this season.

I just think he wimped out a bit on 2 of the 3 big incidents in the game with the Tautai tackle and Charnley grabbing him. He could've easily so binned Charnley and nobody would complain and, whilst I have a lot of sympathy for refs having to judge everything in real time with 1 look, the Tautai tackle wasn't obscured from view in any way so he should've dealt with it. However he didn't wimp out when Charnley's play acting at the play ball went to Tomkins-like levels and rightly gave the penalty, so it shows he can do it, just that like many referees they seem very very reluctant to make big decisions and prefer to leave it to the disciplinary.

The disciplinary decision is daft though. Earlier in the season that kind of tackle was a 4 match ban. I'm willing to bet if Cuthbertson had gone off and then been assessed to have a serious injury then the ban would've been longer.
A 1 match ban is really no kind of disincentive for those type of tackles.

It's a shocking decision. Like someone else said, a 1 game ban for that kind of tackle is no deterant. What will they do the next time someone does one of those? They banned the shoulder charge (which in my view was an over reaction) bit continue to let these tackles happen!! I really find it hard to take the RFL seriously as an organisation

It is if you play for Wigan.

Think they need to look at who is representing on the panel. Maybe time to move away from some ex players, and replace it with a player who's career has been ended by foul play, an ex referee, and also maybe someone with a legal head, such as a solicitor.

This way, the bias could be negated, and foul play could be punished accordignly

thing is, and hicks was doing ok, referees are judged on getting big decisions right. he had two to make and got both badly wrong. did he miss them, did he ignore them because he didn't have the balls to deal with them? either way it was very poor officiating

If one of those was the Charnley one, then to be honest I don't think he bottled that one. I don't think in the heat of the game is the right time for anyone to make a decision on intentional contact with the ref. It hasn't happened like that before, and I think looking afterwards is the right way with that sort of incident.

From memory, I don't think either Bailey or even Hock were sent from the field as a result of their contact with match officials? So in that respect, he's at least been consistent with what has gone before.

I thinks it's a pity that they can't use the system they have in the other code where the on-field & off field officials view incidents on the big screen.
Hicks would have then been able to see that Charnley took hold of his arm & that Tautai had committed a dangerous tackle.
He may still have taken no action.
The Tautai decision especially was ridiculous in that he didn't even put it on report.
Having got those 2 decisions wrong to then appoint him to another Rhinos game could be a like a red rag to a bull. Probably just as well that Mags isn't playing.

A few people are blaming Wigan for this but it's not their fault the disciplinary reduced the charge. They appealed as they (and every other club) are allowed to. The disciplinary could have easily told them to jog on and uphold the original ruling or even increase the ban but they didn't and that is the fault of the RFL and the disciplinary.

While there is zero chance of a further punishment it would be stupid for the clubs to not appeal every little decision, Wigan are just slightly ahead of everyone else in realising this.

Can't blame Wigan for appealing but you can for the tackle which seems to be a feature of their game

Shaun Wayne blaming Leeds for influencing the panel. Shaun Wayne is one of the biggest hypercrits in sport. What game was it when at half time Wigan complained to the ref how the game had been managed when They were losing. Then surprise surprise the second half the ref was way lenient to Wigan. It seems nearly every week he's got something to cry about. I hate his mind games in interviews and it seems nearly every week he's " sending a scathing attack" at some club. Must be hard when the whole world is against you.

Of course you can blame Wigan. Fair enough on the odd decision, but they are appealing continuously, and that is exactly why the RFL have the rule that these things can be increased on appeal. The problem is they are letting that club get away with it. It is clearly against the spirit of the game.