As a leeds fan, I liked what I saw from that Wigan performance.

They should have had that game sewn up easily, looked like they were running away with it at the start

But the wigan players are so intent on being the big bad they react to everything, try to throw their weight about try to niggle and lose their discipline. Farrell has a push and a shove at every play the ball, Tomkins dives in at the slightest provocation. The pack doesn't just want to beat the opposition they want to dominate and bully the opposition pack but when they can't they seem to forget about winning and concentrate on their own personal battles.

Inability to keep a lid on it has cost them dearly in their last two games.

Worst ref in the comp, every game with him is stop start.

There is always a high tackle that gets penalised with a red card at the very start of the season, take Matty Bowen's much worst clothesline on Scott Grix in last year's season opener, that was a red card remember.......oh wait......

The RFL is always looking for match officials. If anybody thinks they can do a better job then contact the RFL.

Impossible to be a ref so far as some fans are concerned. Send one off? Ludicrous, mad, ridiculous etc. Don't send another off? Ludicrous, mad, ridiculous etc. Cannot win.

Ah Van wasn't really being malicious but here's the thing, if you take a heavy and reckless swing and end up stiff-arming a player to the jaw and knocking him out then you risk getting sent off. The old chestnut "he's not that type of player" doesn't really help. Paddy deliberately had a swing and took the risk. It didn't pay off. If he hadn't connected then he wouldn't have been sent off but rightly the consequences of fould play have a bearing. He put Charnley out of the game.

Smith was petulant and embarrassing, but it was hardly a full-blooded kick, he made contact and the player just sort of skipped over it. I would have put it on report as it probably is worth a match ban but it was pathetic rather than much else.

Tomkins running in and pushing a man onto his arris is hardly a big deal. Players run in too much and this game had too many handbags but if you send off every player that comes running in and pushes another player then that would be half the teams.

Some of you have completely lost perspective.

to lash out and kick someone like that should be, and is, a red card.
I don't rate child, if you watch as soon as he blows he turns his back. he misses anything that happens after he blows. that's amateurish and should have been rectified long ago. its basics.
his touch judges gave him no help whatsoever though. they were dreadful

Every game counts this year.....what odds on more reds and yellows this year than a ver before?

are they still only paying ~£30k?

If so, that explains why you don't get high calibre individuals willing to give up their career to do the job for a few years.

Ah Van is a red card. Intent is irrelevant if you swing your arm and connect with the head.

If Smith pushes Hanbury rather than kicks out nothing would get said, there's an element of provocation but the reaction is poor. Easier call to give yellow at that stage of the game, disciplinary can have another look now can they not?

Tomkins idiotic and unnecessary, deserves a couple of games.

A lot of players performed much worse than the ref did IMO.

For me, both incidents were worthy of a yellow card. Ah van you can see wasn't deliberate or malicious i don't believe so yellow would of been fair. Same with smith, petulant but a sending off? really? not for me. I can see why ah van did get a red however in the laws of the game, but interpretation is by individual i guess.

It's a sad indication of the psyche of the rugby league supporter at the moment as a general consensus is to just bag the ref. All I saw on twitter last night was new era, same refs bla bla bla and then 7 pages of moaning about how bad refs are. We should be focusing on what an excellent game it was, a great skill level we had and great fightback, yet people are only interested in moaning about the ref. Why has rugby league become so cynical?

People are getting incredulous at the Refs already, 1 game in. Give it a rest man and enjoy the game. As seen by this thread the events are interpreted differently all the time, which was what happened last night. If the Ref misses a knock on, foot in touch etc and carries on they should be accountable but for the making split second opinion based decisions there has to be understanding and reasoning, which it seems for most RL fans blind outrage has overtaken.

It has snowballed to the point that people genuinely believe in a red hall conspiracy, or that the reason their team lost was because of the ref. Forget about the missed tackles, dropped balls and stupid players making bad decisions - it's the ref's fault. It's embarrassing.

PS - who keep's feeding Joel Tomkins skittles.

Pretty much my stance on it too.

Ah Van should've gone. It wasn't deliberate by any means, it was wreckless, clocked Charnley directly on the noggin (& ended his game).

Smith - at that point in the game, it didn't really matter if it was yellow or red. The disciplinary will deal with him & Tomkins. If the kick out was earlier in the game, it's a red for me - no room for that in our game.

Certainly doesn't help when the 20-man strong commentary team on Sky spend so much time questioning decisions. What other sports broadcasts have to bring in an ex-ref just to stop the commentary team flying off on one incorrectly after a decision?

Good post, Wigan's performance was certainly worse than the ref's.
Playing against 12 men and with a decent lead, what were they doing, give your collective heads a shake

You know you're having a bad game when Robert Hicks has to come onto the pitch to tell you how to do your job.

and nobody was playing the ball properly either

A trip was always deemed as instant dismissal because if players were allowed to bring others down in that way the game of rugby would be not be possible.
When I coached schoolboys it was one of the first things that was explained to them.