Seems the Sharkies coach wasn't happy with the referee. He's looking forward to getting back to the 2 ref, sterilised, holding down, slow game they play over there.

There has been a large drop off of crowds in the NRL over recent years, and they wonder why.

I'm not on my own then.

I watched it last night and one angle seemed to show the ball hitting the inside of his left arm as he jumped but they only gave the video ref one shot of it and proceeded to show numerous replays from other angles which were giving him nothing.

The ball being on the line was 50/50. Nobody can say for sure either way and as it went up as a no try it clearly had to stand as that.

The game is much cleaner around the ruck, the game is much quicker and the refs are a million times more strict with loose ball and knock ons in the NRL.

But Flanagan is a sore loser like all Aussies. They had a couple of poor calls but nothing of game changing substance. Wigan weren't at their best but the best team won without a doubt.

Congratulations to both Wigan and Warrington both deserved their victories and they did themselves and SL proud.

Wigan were very good defensively yesterday - the Sharks were very rusty in attack, but Wigan just didn't let them play. I can't understand why the Sharks were going sidewards so much - with their pack, they should have just steam rolled Wigan around the ruck. Wigan played exactly the right sort of game plan to win and it worked a treat. Pains me to say it, but well done Shaun Wane.

The officiating was awful - the obvious try/no try decisions were one thing, but the inconsistent policing of the ruck and non-policing of offside certainly helped Wigans cause. There were times in that last 20 where Hicks only took Wigan back about 5 or 6 meters, and then when in their own 20 the Sharks got a couple of quick plays and the whole defensive line were about 3 meters in front of Hicks and no penalty. It was almost as if he was allowing offside as a counter balance to a quick PTB.

And Cronulla were constantly stealing metres by moving off the mark, they got away with numerous high shots and their winger should have been sent off for hitting Oliver Gildart late and in the head with his forearm/elbow as he passed the ball to Burgess for his second try.

I came away from the game yesterday actually feeling pretty hard done by with the reffing so I was really surprised to read comments stating that Hicks had done us plenty of favours. He refereed us in both the semi final and final of last years play off series and I didn't feel that way after either of those games and we won the lot so it's not like I felt that way yesterday because we got beat.

You seriously thought Wigan were badly done to by the Ref yesterday?

At the time yes but after watching it back it was very much swings and roundabouts. We got some calls for us and come against. I thought they got away with an awful lot during the game and it didn't look any different watching it back but then we got one or two calls go our way as well.

Our discipline was generally better then there's I thought and it showed on the penalty count. Do I feel we got the rub of the green? Not really, I just think we correctly came out on the right side of the penalty count.

Ultimately the referee had no bearing on the result IMO.

I don't think either team were badly done to - Hicks tried to let the game flow, he just did it with less alacrity than Bentham did the night before; he allowed both teams some leeway for the sake of a free flowing game.

For all the talk of the NRL being a superior comp - which it undoubtedly is - it's actually a very sterile and structured form of RL, with few mistakes and a heavy reliance on percentage plays and athleticism. And they do cheat at the ruck - it's just more evolved, as they've already clamped down on wrestling.

I think Tony Smith alluded to it in his post match interview when he said that Brisbane were quite predictable in that they don't start playing until they get in the opposition 30-20. The only time Brisbane attacked from deep was from the scrum in their own 10 which resulted in a try.

Pfft. No point with the concept. A series whitewash against 2 poor teams without even getting into top gear.

Scrap it. It's done.