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

Because reffing a game these days is difficult as the game is so much quicker. He has to make at least four decisions every play the ball- Are the markers straight? Is the defence onside? Was there a knock on? Was there a foul? - That's six times four for every set. If a set takes a minute the ref is making about 2,000 decisions a game. If he gets 99% right he still gets twenty wrong every game.

Now - I've no idea what is humanly possible. Maybe it IS possible to get 100% of your decisions right - but I doubt it. The ref needs all the help he can get from technology. In this instance Thaler, who is the best ref in the game, by a distance, was let down badly not by the technology but by Alibert.

We currently have the best selection of refs and TJs we have ever had. By some margin. There are plenty of moaners who all, to a man, also happen to be world leading authorities on refereeing, and they unanimously agree that all the refs are bent, useless, blind etc. This is an extremely childish view but hey.

Oh, and these muppets all agree we should "sack all the refs", and "get some better ones". Yes, that'll do it.

You're polarising the debate in such a way that I don't think actually exists.

There are some good, professional officials involved in RL now, that's for sure; and yet week after week, there are inconsistent and inexplicable decisions being made. The two main problems, in my view, are that a) the TJ's are not used in anything like an efficient way and b) the current VR system requiring the ref to judge on something he hasn't seen, hence his referral to the VR in the first place, is fundamentally flawed. On-field ref's often cop a lot of flak for issues that arise from those two problems - so resolving them wouldn't be a bad place to start.

Fundamentally of course, the single biggest problem with officiating RL is that players are coached to cheat - and some of them do it very well - so down with that sort of thing.