No. 1 Saints fan-cum-head of referees enters Tim Roby's room at half time to give him a dressing down.

In the second half Roby gives a succession of contentious penalities to St Helens from which they score to win what is otherwise a tight game.

I know Steve Ganson has always been immaculately impartial but even without the St Helens link it doesn't look like optimal behaviour from him.

Ganson is usually biased against us in a desperate plea to not appear bias (the makinson "no try" vs Salford for example)

Saints were pinged in the first minute of the second half I believe, so it's hardly like it was a let saints win!

Also, I thought this was a fairly regular occurrence?

Agar doesn't think so:

"There was a lot of penalties against us in the second half and I thought the game was refereed differently to the first half.

"Apparently Steve Ganson has entered the referee's dressing room at half-time and has given him a good old-fashioned dressing down.

"I'm not sure that is in his remit. I'd have liked to have been a fly on the wall."

So the head of the referees spots something in the first half and let's a referee know.

Nothing to see here unless I'm missing something

The only thing to spot in the first half was that Saints didn't have a clue how to break down the Wakefield defence and looked like getting a right Tonkin.

Funny how that happens with 3 regular halfbacks out injured, and needing time to figure things out.

We arguably had as much time on your line as we did in the first half, except we didn't put the passes to ground on the second half...

Were you at the game or have you come to this conclusion from listening to the radio ?
The heavy penalty count in favour of Saints, starved Wakefield of the ball for 15-20 minutes, which allowed Saints to gain the upper hand.
The "holding down" calls changed in the 2nd half and Lomax deserves some kind of Oscar, after "coming back fro the dead" after he ran into Ali.
Out for the count one minute and like a spring chicken the next, talk about magic sponge

I listened to the radio, and confirmed after speaking to my parents about the game (who were caught up in fighting on the terraces btw, which I'm not happy about) - but even if that had not been the case, it doesn't invalidate my opinion. 3-4 times saints put the ball down in the first half, and Wakefield picked it up and ran down the field. The last occasion Wakefield scored off it.



I never mentioned the penalty count. Though, arguably, don't give the ref a reason to be penalised, then you won't be penalised. Saints were crucified the last time Roby reffed, so it's hardly a question of bias. All refs have been generally poor this season.

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. The commentary on the radio did seem like a lot of the Saints penalties in the second half were very generous. There were so many comments like "Oh he's given a penalty, just looked like he dropped it to me but we'll take it" and "I think that one actually had some merit".

Without being at the game though it's impossible to judge the context. Was the referee just unbelievably slack in the first half for example? Was he allowed 10 second play the balls and was told off for doing this?

Wow!
Players bending the rules and even breaking them and getting caught!!!!
SHOCK HORROR!
Team loses because they get penalised and also fail miserably to score more points than the opposition.
And who is to blame for all this?
Not the players,not the coach, not the ignorant of the laws of the game fans oh no.
It's the match officials AGAIN and once again the fans blame them for their teams incompetence .
We'll their is an option if you are unhappy but it's obvious very few if any have the gonads to do so.

Come on, you have to admit that it looks bad. Saints are losing and an acknowledged Saints fan goes into the ref's dressing room and gives him a good old-fashioned dressing down (Agar's words). This Saints fan is the ref's boss. In the second half, Saints get a lot of penalties from calls that Saints-centric radio describes as "generous", and scored tries from the field position gained.

Yes, Wakefield didn't help themselves in attack, but on the whole because they were chasing the game, but it looks bad from any perspective. As Agar said, the second half was reffed differently.

Ganson is, in general, incredibly biased against saints, in a vain effort to not come across as biased to other fans.

Alternately, a professional, whilst doing his job, witnessed errors made, went in at half time, and tried to correct them, no different to a coach at halftime. Afterwards, the game is reffed as it was supposed to from the start, and Wakefield were unable to react to that.

It feels a total non-issue that would never of been brought up if Wakefield had won.

But that is like saying we would never go on about Maradona's Hand of God had England won the game. The reffing had a direct effect on the result. Saints scored tries directly after penalties that even Saints-centric radio seemed to describe as generous.

As I said, what happens on the pitch is visible. Ganson might have acted with complete integrity, but if he hasn't the wit to see how it would be perceived, he shouldn't be in the job. Would he have gone in there to give the ref a dressing down at half-time if Saints had been winning? We don't know, that's the whole point, but Ganson is Roby's boss, and the intervention of a Saints fan had a direct effect on how Roby reffed the second half.

All he had to do was take the coaches in with him, so that everyone knew what was said and how the second half was going to be refereed.

I'm not sure, as an employment question, that bringing in outsiders to witness a performance/disciplinary bollocking, works very well, tribunal-wise.

But in a rugby context, that's like the main witness for the employer being allowed a long word in the tribunal chairman's ear before he rules against the employee.