It's all well and good moaning about the ref today but it was like every match something that was within our control.

I've said it before and I'll say it again it's time to make the refs get changed in the pavilion so that they have to walk through the crowd.

See the way Cobb hung around today looking worried about walking down the tunnel? He knew he was going to be on the receiving end of a well earned and deserved barrage of abuse.

The thought of doing it and being completely exposed to the home support would put him off reffing in the pretty despicable manner of today.

I know we are all a bit wary of being called sore losers on this one, and there was a poor performance from us after what we've seen 2 weeks ago, but Cobb has to be seen as having ruined that match. It could have been a great contest and the refereeing was incredibly one sided, the quick taps being a prime example that particularly smarts

Give over.

Only a completely biased idiot can come away from a match where we were outscored ten tries to two, and try and pin it on the ref.
Widnes outclassed us in every aspect of that game today, Cobb had nothing to do with the result.

Guess who the ref is on Saturday....?

This. I disagreed with a couple of his decisions, but then I'm biased and he isn't.

Nobody (that I have seen) is remotely pinning our defeat on the buffoon Cobb.

Everybody is saying he ruined the game, and we will never know what sort of a game it might have been over 80 minutes, because of his antics in the first half. He DID ruin the game. I went to watch a rugby match, where a competent ref would remain pretty anonymous, be even handed, and let the game flow. Instead, like thousands of others, my concentration became centred entirely on the cretinous nincompoop in the middle.

I do wish people would stop conflating the very justified diatribes against the appalling refereeing with any suggestion that this caused us to concede 50. That's not the point at all. Cobb probably didn't have anything to do with the result. He did however have everything to do with the ruination of what could have been an enjoyable game to watch.

How exactly did he ruin the game? By calling our forward passes forward?
I'm struggling to think of any decision Cobb gave that could be seen as him 'ruining the game'.

The commentator on Radio Leeds did seem to think the Ref made some tough calls against the Bulls, especially
in the first half and start of the second half.

My problem with Cobb was he reffed our game differently to the way he reffed the Halifax/Salford game the day before. If he'd reffed our game like that one, I would have enjoyed it more.

How can a ref change his style? or did the teams change the way the game was played? Was Cobb mentally tired after 2 games in 24hours? Or was it the linesmen?

TBF isn't it the linesmen who give forward passes?

Obviously it's subjective. I'm not a ref moaner and generally feel flat/marginally forward passes are part of the game. However, he routinely allowed Widnes more time in the tackle and their players were 2/3 metres in front of him at the 1st and 2nd ptb more often than not. This allowed them to restrict our go forward and by definition changed the nature of the game. Whether it changed the identity of the winner is irrelevant, it changed the basis of the contest. And like others have said, it's annoying and the last half an hour was boring because the Bulls were demoralised and felt an already difficult task was made impossible.

Linesmen seem to be neither user nor ornament. Its very seldom you see them do anything.

If I'm not mistaken didn't the 3 clowns, Hicks, Childs and Cobb all officiate at Wembley last week, touch judge, video ref and spare ref??

They are the worst of the worst, although Cobb is out on his own has the worst ref

I might ask my gaffer to watch Cobb ref a game and next time I make a mistake at work, ask him for a pay rise. It obviously works for some people

Maybe it's a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy. We see its Cobb and we expect the worst and we then think we see the worst. As he is supposedly a Leigh fan, and got an earlier "glowing endorcement" from James Lowes, it could easily lay the platform for a conspiracy theory. People were burnt at the stake for less.

It's all a bit hysterical is this Cobb bashing. He's not the greatest sure but in my opinion yesterday was down to our own failings rather than his.

We'd have needed a lot more than 50/50 decisions to go our way to have got a win.