Apart from the knock on try and a 7 yard forward pass in one of the earlier saints tries the ref was OK

Cas proved last night how small time they are, from the coach all the way down to the fans. Fans constantly booing the ref even though the calls were about 50/50 and cheering when they thought Barba was injured, then Powell showing his lack of class. yeah it was totally the refs fault that your tactics were dismal and your players cant tackle.

Regards

King james

Yes, we remember the class exhibited by Saints fans & coach during the fatty years. I agree it is cheap blaming the ref, nothing to do with the result. Cas have 2 poor wingers ATM, Minikin lacks bottle, if he had gone low rather than trying the fancy he would have got a couple but maybe taken a dig in the ribs. Hitchcox is Championship, as is Ellis. Trueman is too young without class at the side of him. Roberts is reaching the point where his future must be questioned. We have not come close to replacing Haraker at FB.

Replace Hardaker with Barba and Gale with Roby and you could say the same thing about Saints. It's amazing when you take the best two players out of a team how much easier it is to play against them.

a) this Saints team is already sans Walmsley who is one of our best.

b) Saints have won games without Barba or Roby so far this season. Even with both of them out we would probably have Lomax - Fages - Richardson - Smith in the spine (may even forgo moving Lomax and put Costello there after his debut vs Huddersfield). Not a bad spine at all all things considered.

They are the most consistent team in the Superleague era, never missed a play off in all the super league years no other teams have done that. I think they have won the LLS about 7 times and finished top 4 on 17 occasions out of 19 seasons.
I think they have battled in 10 grand finals with and without injuries, Leeds have got the better of them but that doesn't stop Saints from being consistent especially at the business end of the season.

Powell has gone down a few notches by spitting his dummy out, he really can't motivate his team consistently when it matters, winning one LLS title is not really a good measurement of success.

Although Walmsley is a miss for Saints, surely its not a big a miss as if one of your spine picked up an injury? Luke Thompson seems to have stepped up in AW absence.

Saints have had there 3 best players out in Walmsley, Roby and Barba, most probably the best players in super league by position.

Saints beat Huddersfield 66 - 4 without Walmsley, Roby and Barba.
Saints beat Salford 60 - 10 without Walmsley, Roby and Barba (half a game)

You would think by your theory the score lines would have been closer or perhaps its better to digest Barba's comment that the Saints Pack are working really hard to lay a platform for the backs.

Apart from the try he gave Cas thats should never have been, he had a good game, if he keeps improving as aref then we have a good ref on our hands, a few 50/50s call that could of gone either way, but all the the major calls he got right.

Quite and what the more inexperienced refs don't need is coaches ridiculing them constantly.

I seem to remember Powell complaining about Thaler and since then I don't think they're had a game where he's been main official

He has but not many. The game was after Wigan in 2016. But I think we've had Thaler maybe once or twice since then.

It's got bad when you actually want Thaler as ref. Hicks Child are at best ok but Kendall and MickeyMouskas are hard to defend. Hewer always impresses me when I see him ref. But doesn't seem to be in the clique?

What's happened to Phil Bentham. Not been seen since houston nailed him.