It's almost uncanny, isn't it? All of a sudden, his kicks are finding the grass by the corner flag instead of the bread-basket of the full-back. Our kicking game overall was pretty damned good tonight.

Outstanding performance from Thaler, and for once the VR worked as it should too. As a result, very enjoyable game to watch.

People bemoan the poor standard of Superleague, and that wasn't greatest game I've ever seen, but I still found it a much more exciting watch the the vast majority of NRL games.

It's not ridiculous. It's to stop post match conferences being b|tch-feats about the ref.

Powell was suggesting that Thaler should be sacked as a referee and was denigrating his ability as a referee with repeated references that Thaler "has been dropped a couple of times". When he hasn't.

God only knows why he was dropped after trying to get that walking, talking Monty Python sketch of a French VR to actually look at the video in Catalans. Yet Tricky Dicky Silverwood gets a major televised game the week after a humongous cockup in the Cup. I didn't notice Powell complaining when a terrible decision went in Cas favour.

Unfortunately it seems as if Powell got rather worked up like the Cas crowd around him instead of actually looking at what's going on. He admitted the sin binning was correct and he said that was a crucial part of the game. Wigan had a try wrongly disallowed and an 8 point try not given and Cas could easily have had a try chalked off for obstruction.

Weak defence and not enough composure in attack along with crucial injuries to a small squad is what cost Cas, not the referee.

Absolutely saints fan wanting wigan to win

Yep spot on. Whilst I can understand their anger post match especially on occasions when refs make really blatant mistakes....if you didn't fine coaches for criticising the refs then it would be open season and nearly every post match interview from the losing coach would be criticising the ref.



Yeah again agree. It's obvious Cas have come into the game with an issue with Thaler and straight away that clouds your judgment on every decision he makes. Most teams have that one ref they always seems to have beef with. At the moment at Leeds they can't seem to focus on the game when James Child is the referee and seem to be in a running battle with him.

Also on the 8 point try I agree. But don't think refs will give those unless the try scorer is hurt by the slide. Charnley wasn't tonight and neither was McGuire in the GF. Ratchford stayed down when he copped one off Farrell and it was punished. Which is wrong btw as it should be judged on the offence and not the damage done.

I thought Wigan's discipline was actually very good. Not often I think that, the absences of SOL, MM and Liam Farrell must help in that regard. Thaler got most things right.

I also think that Wigan's pack was the better of the two. I know they're much-maligned but they made ground at a steady rate of knots last night.

Didn't really have an issue with Thaler's performance last night, he got most things right. Webster was wrong about the offside as the cameras proved and regardless shouldn't have approached the referee in that manor.

Powell should and probably will be fined. We don't want it turning in to open season on the referee like football. It's something that's creeping in to the game, and needs stamping on.

I agree. I thought Thaler was spot on in most decisions and definitely in tth way he spoke to the players.
A lot of winging from Cas tonight.

I wonder what Powell would've said if some of the 50/50s that went Wigans way went Cas'. Thaler let Cas get away with stuff as much as he did Wigan. I hope the RFL stick to their guns (for once), fine Powell, and stick Thaler on for Cas's next game. As bad as Widnes whinging about Joe Cobb.

Bit strange this, i usually find cas fans fairly sporting, apart from last year when there was a couple of dubious VR decisions went our way, but last night they seemed to decide very early on that Thaler was against them and got on his back almost right away.
Strange because apart from the offside decision at HT and the Bateman incident i couldn't see what he did to upset them.
But as Gronk's posts on here suggest, cas fans have a problem with him or he is perceived to have a problem with them and that possibly clouded their judgement?
I thought he had a good game and stamped his authority well, unlike some modern day officials.

Quite an entertaining game last night. Few errors from Thaler, but thought he was generally spot on. Wigan got in their faces and Cas indiscipline cost them the 2 points imo.