Another obstruction "missed" by Thaler and the ball steal that gave Catalan the ball back was a knock on so he gave them the ball instead of a Cas scrum.

Bent Thaler strikes again.

Thaler has credibility. Alibert has a history of mistakes although most people seem to like him. Will be interesting to see what Ganson does. I imagine he can visualise himself doing the same as Thaler if he'd been out there.

Classy.

Silverwood and whoever the VR is in the Widnes v Saints game ignored the rules too. Silverwood also sent up something he knew 100% wasn't a try to the VR. If the refs ignore the rules what hope have we that the players will abide by them?

Just seen the Thaler/Alibert incident. For me it shows how little trust Thaler has in Alibert. He was striving to find the right decision, I don't have a problem with that. I have a problem with a video referee who awards that try for Cas.

Yeah, I had some sympathy with Thaler, whom I think most regard as our best ref. But he surely did break the rules there, and can expect some sanction. I don't remember ever before seeing a ref tell a captain on the field basically, yeah, I think the decision's rubbish, but there's nothing I can do.

To be fair I don't think Thaler actually did say that to the players, IIRC he said "dont ask me" and then basically along the lines of "the decision is made by the VR looking at the video, we (as in himself and the TJ's) can't do anything about it). Which I've seen a few refs do over the years. Though it was obvious in his manner what he thought about the decision.

I don't know if Thaler actually did break any rules, I think if you examine his comments closely he is continually asking/checking with Alibert if he's looking at the right part of the play. Now Thaler is obviously suprised by Alibert's analysis of what Thaler is looking at on the big screen.
The bit where he may be in breach of rules is where he's basically telling Alibert the rules - "you do know that if it hits his teammates head behind him..."etc etc.

But that's the bit that's most telling for me. Thaler doesn't have confidence that the VR knows the rules.

That's the way I saw it - despite Gronk crying foul about Thaler having something against Cas, it looked to me like he was trying to guide Alibert to the right decision because he could see that he wasn't looking at the right things; and his demeanour clearly demonstrated that Alibert wasn't communicating with him.

It's embarrassing. The standard of some of our officials is appalling. How can the VR give that Cas try? Even with Thaler trying to explain that it blatantly isn't and Alibert not understanding, Thaler out of patience and time to communicate so try given anyway.

Thaler shouldn't face action for that, Alibert should. If the VR knows the rules and is capable of spotting something so obvious the on field ref doesn't have to question anything. If Thaler could see it just off the big screen from the pitch yet Alibert can't that says it all.

Bet Alibert was over the moon to see the Salford chavs in the news. Talk about a good day to bury bad news.

Why is Alibert always the video ref at Catalans games anyway? Are the RFL really so cheap that they can't afford one extra plane ticket?

Alibert messed up the decision for the Catalan no try in the first half as well, and you could actually hear Thaler on the mic say 'what have you given there Thierry?' because he had no clue what the idiot was doing.

www.skysports.com/rugby-league/n ... -in-france Alibert is head of match officials for French RL, as all Catalans home games are televised I suspect its more of a convenience thing to have him as VR and you would expect he is more than capable. Yesterday would suggest differently however.

www.skysports.com/rugby-league/n ... -in-france Alibert is head of match officials for French RL, as all Catalans home games are televised I suspect its more of a convenience thing to have him as VR and you would expect he is more than capable. Yesterday would suggest differently however.

Sure. These sanctions will be considered immediately after the sanctions for Ganson and Klein have been dealt with for breaking all the rules at once in the Bulls Leeds debacle several centuries ago.

Yeah i agree with that, i don't think Thaler did anything wrong. He was actually trying to keep the integrity of the game by trying to guide Alibert to the correct decisions.

when are we ever going to have a ref or refs who can ref the game its the same every season and we complain every season get some new and better refs please