watched him ref a LER match (Limoux v FCL if I recall) in january and he was appalling - lost control of the game completely !!! maybe the step down from SL affected his interpretation of the rules at the lower grade ?
still can't figure it out !

Define Average!!!!!

And unfortunatly that makes him the best out of a bad lot somedays.

Quote: Leaguefan "Define Average!!!!!'" You could have googled it yourself. dictionary.reference.com/browse/average HTH

Quote: Leaguefan "Define Average!!!!!'" You could have googled it yourself. dictionary.reference.com/browse/average HTH

Best ref going these days.
Never something that RL fans will agree with though.

agreed but it's difficult to define a 'good ref' when you are trying to be objective - rl fans are a fickle bunch and one bad decision can make a good ref look rubbish - I think it is and always has been a question of consistency and for me Mr Alibert is consistent so far this season.Can't ask for more than that IMO

I honestly think that's why everyone thinks he's hopeless, he looks silly, but he's still the best ref by far. He's the only ref in SL that isn't the centre of attention all the time and lets the players play the game.

Given the treatment I saw dished out to him when refereeing a 2nd division game in France, he was probably keeping one eye on the game and one eye on a safe route to the nearest getaway car. Brave men, the refs in France.

I don't think he's a particually good ref in terms of implementing the letter of the laws of RL. However, he does let the game flow more than Child to leans more to the letter of the law.

If teams play to Thierry's interpretations of the laws then they can get away with holding down, offsides and the odd bit of dirty play more than others. But the game flows.

<pedant mathematician mode>To be "average", either all refs are the same, or there are approximately half of them better than he is and half worse. Assuming refs abilities are normally distributed.</pedant mathematician mode>

Seriously, refs do get better. Reffing part time in the Championship is entirely different to being full time in Super League. It's vital that we have a top quality ref who isn't Aussie (have they actually got any) or British and Thierry is getting into that bracket.

Well cheese-eating surrender monkeys is a quote from The Simpsons and 'cowardly' is a stereotype often attached to the French. I thought that was fairly self evident.
I notice you don't refute 'garlic-y, frogs legs & snail eating, dirty, unwashed and adulterous'?

Is it also true that the French can't take a joke?

Watching the Leigh v Sheffield game now as I was working that day and the ref didn't give a penalty for 25 minutes and it was a cracking, open game. Refs should stay out of the way.

I agree, he has a unique running style which doesn't help either. He also doesn't help himself sometimes when he appears to not quite know what to do. The end of the Wigan v Leeds playoff game last season was an example of him having to be told by the TJ what to do.

Having said that I'd agree he's probably the best ref in SL and certainly doesn't have the ego of many other refs.

He runs like a touch judge.

sorry mate never seen The Simpsons so can't help you there

regarding the rest,well,

never tasted snails or frogs legs myself but apparently they are ok,if you like that sort of thing I suppose - they are not commonly eaten by the average french person as far as i'm aware probably no more or less than say a scotsperson eating haggis & chips or similar...

'garlic-y' ? - probably no more than the average british household nowadays though it depends on which part of france you go to - most french people I know take garlic in tablet (odourless) form as a part of a healthy diet etc. It's really good for you ,you know ?

'dirty & unwashed' - the general hygene standards are much higher in france than in modern day britain - look around,it's a relatively clean country compared to the european dustbin that is britain and the french population spend loads more on personal hygene than the brits,if the rl fans i've seen in Perpignan & Toulouse are anything to go by,not to mention the tens of thousands of uk spongers who come over to france annually to try to milk the superior Social Security system etc

'adulterous' - yes,definitely - can't think of many french married or attached adults who don't have lovers

'cowardly' - just compare the losses of french and uk/commonwealth soldiers & civilians in WW1 (especially) & WW2 and you will see the similarity of the figures.Not to mention the 90,000 french jews who didn't have much choice - are they cowards also ?

yes,the french do have a sense of humour tho' obviosly as twisted as yours it seems - having a bad hair-day are we ? what with the mighty Rhinos getting stuffed twice in a row