The refereeing was very strange last night. I felt there were a few calls which he got wrong last night, though not major ones. What surprised me most was the sheer amount of holding down he allowed, both from Saints and Leeds. As the final 3 minutes dawned after our Drop Goal I was shouting at my own players to stop trying to slow down the PTB as I felt sure we were going to end up giving away a penalty. In the same way, I was shouting at the referee to penalise Saints when we'd make a break and players would deliberately hold down the man in order to get their defence back. That's not an attack on your players as we did the same, but I didn't think the referee would allow us all to do it as much as he did.

That all being said, I didn't notice Bentham too much. In some games you feel like the referee is a third team you're against (Not necessarily 'siding' with the other team, but just being on his own causing problems) and you notice his presence (James Child, that one is you). Whereas Bentham didn't have a good game but he also didn't change the course of the game, I don't think? I guess subconciously you certainly look at it differently if you won or lost.

Home advantage also helps.

Nobody in the pub I was at in Warrington thought that Watkin's try was put down cleanly and howled when it was given.
I have to agree with them but said nothing as it would look like sour grapes.

It wasn't put down cleanly, if by cleanly you mean that he was in full control of the ball and grounded it with his hand? So that's true. He did have fingertip control - well, as much control as you can have with your fingertips - and had downward pressure with 1/2 fingers, which as per the rules is all you need for a try to be given. I see the annoyance with a try like that, but the correct decision was given.

These things happen in every game; we just tend to dwell on them a lot more when it's a big game.

No I didn't mean that - I meant it appeared to be fresh air between the ball and his hand as it went down.
Certainly the sky mob had serious doubts.

Still its all history and I wish you good luck against the pies.