Quote Cronus="Cronus"The point for me is not that Salford would necessarily have won with a better refereeing performance - chances are Saints would - but that they didn't get a level playing field and the game was ruined for the neutral.
Big games are often decided on small moments. When the ref repeatedly hands possession and territory to a team like Saints in error and then doesn't do the same for Salford, he's influencing the result. This is one of top officiating teams, they simply shouldn't be missing shoulder charges, offside at the scrum, heads in the tackle, etc. The Dudson call was ridiculous. Yes, ball strips/knock-ons can be very hard to officiate, but somehow these decisions mostly went against Salford.
Salford fans have (mostly) been fine because 99% were at the game, probably happily drunk, and you simply don't see these small things live. A few I know were loving life last night but have watched the game today and are feeling rightly hard done to.
On current form they had a real chance of winning - as demonstrated when they eventually got some possession and territory. Saints struggled to handle them. All we wanted was the ref to be invisible and a fair shot for both sides, and that did not happen.
BTW whingeing about the ref isn't being disparaging to Saints - they've been simply outstanding all year and deserved to end the year as champions.'"
This is spot on for me.
I don't begrudge Saints the win. They were great at what they do. Most of those 50/50 calls went Saints way, and on review probably shouldn't have. It's hard enough playing against Saints when calls are fair or even, but almost impossible when those calls go against you when they shouldn't have. The sad thing thing was that when we eventually got decent field position we scored, and may have scored another with Lolohea if the call had gone upstairs. When we get into the opponents twenty we more often than not score or score on the back of new sets. We simply couldn't retain that position because most of the time a bad call was made when we ventured anywhere near their twenty.
Be interesting next year now that teams know how Saints play whether they can do the same again. I get the feeling this year that they have been so dominant for the first twenty minutes of both halves that games are generally already won. Whenever I've seen teams test them defensively they leak points, it's just that most teams have been blasted out of the park before anyone can try.
Anyway, congrats to Saints, and hopefully this experience will be invaluable for Salford going forward.
