So in other words, Saints still would have won given Salford scored only 6 points anyway... lol.

In fact why stop at 14. Surely Percival was offside from the kick for that third try? Terrible by Kendall..

All these total e ‘I’m a neutral, but...’ FFS.

Congratulations to the champions of 2019.

I'm not sure you understand momentum or psychology.

I agree he wasn’t corrupt and likely didn’t go into the game with any bias. But Kendall has a habit of “going off on one” against teams where players complain about his decisions.

The game was going fine until he made a call against Salford. The tackle where he gave a knock on against Salford but the replays showed Saints hands ripping the ball out. Some Salford players remonstrated/complained and that was that. They got nothing after that.

That’s a pattern that has been repeated multiple times by Kendall this season. Whilst not easy to tell conclusively because obviously you don’t see the refs equally, I’d say it’s a pattern that’s become more prevalent across all the refs, Hicks is another I’ve noticed it with. When a player complains he or his team are penalised shortly thereafter.

Funnily enough it’s a trait regularly displayed during his officiating days by the current head of referees...

Oh aye, it was totally all the ref; hell he even ingrained Saints’ name on the trophy with McManus before kick off. The only people bleating arr people who barely know the rules or too stubborn to admit they know naff all about the game. There was little Kendall got wrong.

Kendall has been the best referee all season and he was superb tonight. He is consistent with his calls and his communication with the players is superb. Non-shouty, not condescending, just instructive. Some other referees would do well to watch his performance back and learn from aspects of it.

The calls the neutrals are getting all weird about are so minor. There was only one big call in the game, the decision to penalise Lolohea for obstruction. It was the correct decision, completely accidental but runs into his own player and stops Knowles tackling him, clearly obstructed, he wouldn't have scored had Tomkins not been there. I spotted a knock against Salford in the 49th minute that should have been penalised for a ball steal by Thompson. The two Naiqama tackles could have been penalised, but the touch judge didn't flag for either and it was right in front of him, so not sure how Kendall is supposed to give it from his position, i.e looking at Naiqama's back for the high shot. The decision against Dudson was a 50:50 as both could be penalised. He could and probably should have penalised Smith for not releasing him, and I'm sure he would have done had Dudson tried to play the ball with his foot. A more savvy player there would put the foot on it and get the penalty. But to note, Kendall gives exactly the same decision against LMS in an almost identical situation.

No major controversies at all and the best you lot can come up with is sweeping statements about bias with absolutely nothing to back it up.

I think that Kendall is from the family that owns Kendall's farm butchers: https://www.kendallsfarmbutchers.co.uk/ They make the award winning pies, which might explain a few things.

I think that Kendall is from the family that owns Kendall's farm butchers: https://www.kendallsfarmbutchers.co.uk/ They make the award winning pies, which might explain a few things.

As has already been noted, Salford fans and others have been fine.

Just the odd bitter wire poster.

As far as the game goes saints defence was excellent, for near 25 mins Salford barely saw a blade of saints grass.

Once the second try was score the tide started to turn but half time came at just the right time for saints and allowed Holbrook to reinforce the game plan.

Second half whilst not as dominant as the first 20 the saints defence was still outstanding.

So Hicks had a much better game in the cup final than Kendall did tonight, in terms of accuracy of decisions that's empirically provable. The fact that Kendall's poor calls mostly headed in favour of one team is unfortunate.

For all these Saints fans protesting about this not tarnishing their victory above (it clearly does), it will be interesting to see what their comments on Hicks performance was back in August were. It would be terrible if they were being hypocritical. Hell the circumstsances aren't really even the same because they didn't have much reason to complain in the first place they were so comprehensively touched up by Warrington; their entire club from fans to management, was just an embarrasment those two weeks post-Wembley. I'm sure Salford will take last night's setbacks with greater dignity.

Credit to the Salford fans as the only ones not interested in bringing faux controversy to a game largely dominated by the best side in the competition.

Salford fans at the ground were brilliant - well done to them on a fantastic season.

Ingrained? hmmmmmm That is as far as i need to read. Another one who is a thick as pig turd.