The disallowed try was for a pass that was a mile forward - you can't expect to get away with those types of passes forever.

And as for deserving a draw; the fact is you opted to go for a drop goal with 10mins to go instead of going for the kill which shows your side lacked bottle in the face of a defence who fronted up.

Saints can play some skillful RL at times but in any game were the going gets tough (Wire aside), your team goes into it's shell resulting in weak options like dropping a goal with 10mins to go - in harsh terms this is the choice of a team full of "flat-track bullies".

The return fixture promises to be another great match but whether both teams have their respective players missing from last night or both suffer further injuries, I fully expect another hard fought Rovers victory whilst you have as poor a back 3 as Wellens, Gardner and Armstrong.

smith hasn't officiated at that many of saints' games though has he,since anderson banished him elsewhere on gameday?

What about the knock on that he let go that your team scored from.
Head high by Maurie, lucky to be on the field in my opinion.
You played poor get over it.

I think smith was as bad to both teams, and i really dont rate him at all, but the match was awesome and he didn't ruin it

So you are [ireally[/i suggesting Ian Smith is a bent ref. Nothing to do with giving what he saw?

I'm not saying every decision he made was correct.

I look forward to reading about Smith not being a ref in the next few weeks. If he is cheating then surely the club will complain? other team? the fans? and he will be remove from being a ref.



But it is true.



Where have I said that?



I figured all of those could be encompassed in the phrase "taking the wrong option".

The club should complain, as Anderson did last year. Complaining is pointless when no matter what is said, Cummings just defends the referees. I never said he was bent, he is generally a shocking referee, and as others have said, is not SL Standard, and i've never once seen him have a good game. Cummings must have seen a problem with Smith last year to allow Anderson to dictate wether we have him or not, then Anderson leaves and we have him twice in three games. Coincidence?

It might be true that the referee doesn't miss tackles, but like i said, if he constantly penalties a team then eventually they will crack and tire, not because of bad defence, but purely because of the amount of defence they have had to do, which is the referees fault.

You singled out Long for taking the wrong option, yet you failed to point out several other players who made errors through-out the game, that was the point i was making.

that was so last season though

So which player in particular do you think Smith dilikes enough to start imagining infringements and penalising his team for them?

4 games last year, 2 out of our first 3 games this year. Lost 4 games out of 6, 2 games were with controverisial circumstances hence no more games afters Andersons spat.

Having watched rugby league for a long, long time, worse referee have seen for a long, long time. Some of his decision making he just makes up in his head.

I was behind the sticks at the other end, my gripe is that the touch judge seemed to wait for the try to be scored before getting involved. Suspicious indeed but I can't comment on whether it was forward or not.

We did deserve a draw, end of story, taking a drop as early as 10 to go is not something we normally do but let's face it you never got close to getting over after it did you?????? Not even close once. The penalty won you the game.

The decision on the first drop was not a bad one, it underlined the belief in our defence to hold you out which it did. It was only breached three times, one with a disputed try that hardly anyone can confirm was legit and came off a hopeful punt down the field and another from a high kick. You had loads of territory and possession and couldn't turn it into the tries to reflect that. Our defence is still awesome.

I don't know how you can say we go into our shell in tough games, when we have lost less matches in 5 years than anyone else. Most of those games have been tough and in plenty we've had the ringcraft to win them from losing positions. You're simply talking rubbish about that.

It just wasn't our night in attack with a patched up side, and Rovers played very well indeed. They're the simple facts. I'd have been happy with a draw.

In my opinion we bombed the draw and gave it away. We could and should have tied it up with a 2nd drop with 2 mins to go. We could not have been any closer and under the sticks as well, and Long even dropped back a bit for prime position but the ball was moved wide instead. BAD OPTION INDEED.