Over tha past month he has been VR at Batley, Widnes, Keighley, Whitehaven, Hull and at Catalans, he also attends games Friday, Saturday and Sunday every week.

This week there was a complete and full program for the SL and all the Championship and Championship 1. Last week Ray Tennant was the VR at Catalans and he certainly wasn't there for the Castleford match 3 weeks ago when they had all the snow.

The reason for travelling the day before and coming back the day after is purely down to flights.

Those unhappy with "match officials" who travel overseas to do their job could join a club as a player, coach, kitman, physio etc and get a "freebie" overseas which of course is them doing their job!

The other alternative is to become a match official and work REALLY HARD (a concept it would appear few understand at convenient times)) and if you REALLY GO FOR IT then YOU can become the match official supremo and take all the "freebies", "jollies" etc that seem to irritate you so much at the moment.

A ball steal in the in-goal area is not a penalty try. It's a penalty to the attacking team 10m out.

Will you please stop putting the truth, logic and commonsense into posts like these.

You will confuse people and we can't be having that can we

Please desist

it doesnt bother me if Cummings is getting a few freebie trips to perpignan.

The fact he is at his job does

By who's or what standards?

Presumably part of his role is to ensure continuous improvement amongst those he manages.

Are match officials better (in your opinion) now than they were say 10 years ago despite no longer having the distraction of a day job?

Even as the game moves on they are just as good/bad as they have always been as have the players.

Because they are all human beings they mistakes just like everyone else. There are no perfect match officials, players, supporters, media pundits, journalists or whatever although by the postings on these sites and others you would think there were.

Look at the "perfect" sport of grid iron with all the match officials they have and even they get it wrong.

It's hard to accept that things go wrong and it's human nature to react but HOW you react is the key.

One day Mr Cummings will no longer be in the job and someone else will be and you know what, the same old stuff will come forth again and there will be new fans and new players and will they be perfect or will they make mistakes as well?

i dont expect perfect. I just expect better

I'll be sure to point you in the direction of this post next time you berate a RL player for a "mistake" that they made.

?

Players, match officials and followers of the game ALWAYS make mistakes, it's part and parcel of the game.

How you deal with it, is the challange.

What happens on these forums though is by default "my team lost" therefore it is because X, Y, Z match official caused, allowed, made, missed A, B, C action/event etc and I/we are unhappy.

Put it in perspective, you have a minimum of 5 match officials trying to control a minmum of 34 players and
2 coaches.

Could you cope and see everything that 7 people could do? (averaged out)

Players and coaches are constantly looking for ways to get that extra adavantage by fair means or foul and match officials are trying to ensure that fair means only are allowed and penalise foul means. Sometimes the players get away with it, other times the match officials catch them.

You hear crys of "cheat" etc from ignorant supporters aimed at match officials but NEVER EVER at players/coaches and certainly not their teams players.

Strange isn't it.

Mistakes are, as you say, a part of human nature.

In business, if you make a mistake which disadvantages a client then a part of the process of making it right is to acknowledge the mistake in the first place.

Part of the issue fans of the game have with Stuart Cummings is that he doesn't acknowledge the mistakes his match officials make, choosing instead to whitewash over them in the media by giving the decisions his full support.

I don't expect match officials to be perfect. What I do expect them to do is improve and get better at their job year on year. Under Cummings, this doesn't appear to be happening so the question has to be asked, what is he doing to justify his position at Red Hall?

mistakes are acceptable,we all make them.
however take thaler for example. blew the pea out of the whistle at saints-wigan for having a hand on the ball at the ptb.
four days later he let catalans do the same all game.
mistakes are acceptable. inconcistency is not.

ganson the same. wigan v leeds he hammered both teams at the ptb and it wa a better game for it. at hull v warrington he let everything go.

Yep, the inconsistencies especially around the play the ball are a big issue and the inconsistencies shouldn't be as pronounced as they are between different ref's and different games when the ref's are full time.

In terms of consistency James Child has been exemplary over every game I have seen him referee. There will always be the question of where you draw the line in terms of time to clear the ruck etc. and he seems to have it pretty much spot on. He lets the game flow when there's no messing about but is willing to consistently penalise teams who consistently offend. If he is indicative of the quality referees currently being developed then Cummings has done a great job.