Just to counter the prevailing sentiment that I think can only be treated as anecdotal, I’ve been to Warrington plenty of times as an away and never had any trouble.

Nobody can conclusively say who instigated the off-field violence. Did a random Catalans just Chuck a glass/chair/whatever without some prior provocation? Unlikely. What’s just as unlikely is that Wire fans suddenly started storming the box above them for no reason.
Clearly something took place, I think it’s likely that both sides were at fault for it starting however that doesn’t excuse any of the behaviour or make it any better for the innocent fans on both sides who got caught in the middle.

As for the on-field stuff Catalans were approx 70% at fault in my view. Wire did some unnecessary stuff too but quite why Catalans are going flying up to defend a penalty at 30 points to whatever up in the last minute with the only intention to start a fight I have no idea.
The fact that both sides including captains lost their cool to such an extreme in a game that was dead and buried shows a weakness in both teams in my opinion.

For those who have been waiting anxiously, here are the on field highlights of the match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbehYlPo_ew

For those who have been waiting anxiously, here are the on field highlights of the match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbehYlPo_ew

It was James Child’s fault that he lost control of the game, yes. The incidents in the crowd were as a result of the game being out of control.

The only thing that Childs can be blamed for is not taking the players off the pitch and insisting that the penalty be playyed. IMO once the trouble started in the stands he should of taken the players away from any involvement, just a little too adherant to the rules for no particular good reason

a SMALL MINORITY of fans, to label all fans is simply wrong in my opinion.

Having gone through a lot of the posts on here, I watched the full game back last night, having not seen it live.

Child can be clearly heard telling the players to behave, what he expects. He issued two yellow cards to try and cool down a simmering game.

The Players either did not see fit to follow the officials instructions or, most likely, could not keep control of themselves. To lay the blame at the official is nothing short of a travesty.

But I appreciate you are looking for any avenue to deflect the blame from the wire fans who got our game into the national news for the wrong reasons.

Looked like it was some of your home stewards mountaineering to me.
Par for the course.
Child is a cr@p referee nonetheless.

That would have made him the first referee to abandon a game in Super League history I believe? On TV as well. The players were well capable of tapping the ball and kicking it dead to end the game, they just made it take forever by debating it with him instead of just doing it. Child by the way, not Childs

Christ.

I can't see what Child could have done differently, 26 "grown men" behaving like kids. The stewarding needs investigating and the gendarme will take a view on the crowd I am sure.

Thats a load of garbage and a bit of a cop out, James Child had an enormous job trying to stop all the foul play from the worse 2 teams in superleague for this kind of stuff. Warrington have almost double the amount of yellow cards than anyone else in the competition will 11 yellows so far. Add the constant chirping from "Budgie" Hill he tried to take the control of the game from the ref. Budgie needs to keep his trap shut and not use foul language.

It was comedy gold from James Child when he penalised Philbin for lying on, Phibin appealed and James Child said you "were almost falling asleep on him."

Hill ia just a dirty bully, like the kid at school who was that bit bigger than everyone else, he should have got 3 matches.