Bring back hanging and start with this guy!

I'd love to see that penalty count? I mean why be so biased in a friendly game i just don't get what his motives are, Wigan scored every try (barring Tompkins two) off the back of repeat sets or sometimes 3 in a row due to penalty’s it just killed the game tonight I’m very disappointed with the official.

Every match Wigan lost last season including friendlies was reffed by Mr Bentham, maybe its your turn this season!!

He is awful isn't he, spoilt a good game by blowing that fecking whistle! Was like watching american football tonight with the amount of stop start periods in the game.

Oh by the way i don't think we won a game under him last year and he was our ref almost every week it seemed like.

Worst ref in the league IMO he likes the sound of his own whistle, i just wish he'd lose the pea from it!!

The match officials looked rustier than any player.

Agreed.

The guy should be demoted i can't remember seeing the game flow once with out a stoppage?

It's all very well slagging off the ref. Does anyone REALLY believe that the refs are biased?

Surely the smart thing to do is to start to understand just how the refs behave and play to that, use it to our advantage - that's exactly what Wigan did today - knowing just how long they could lie on for - dare I say it - we need some smart coaching and let's play as professionally as some other sides do.

Yes i do by that performance tonight.

Whatever you think about todays peformance one thing you can be sure of it that Bentham is not biased towards wigan. EVERY game, including the pre season friendly he reffed us for last season we lost.

i don't believe that they are biased just inconsistent in the match, the lying on for instance as soon as we started it we were penalised for it, then he does wigan and after that he didn't bother with wigan doing it, but did us a couple more times. Wigans try right on half time clearly a massive knock on but the try stood. In the second half Wigan knock on I think gibson picked up the ball cleanly and was off to score pulled back for our scrum. Just some of the strange decs in todays match, now if it is to continue like this for the season there is no point in watching.

Are there any statisticians out there who could tell me the total penalty count for:against over say last 5 seasons with this `ref`.

I net its something like 30:70

I just feel he never has given Salford a crack & it seems deep rooted - Remember that Catalans farce he officiated in?

Only Hewer is worse for me.

We need to get rid of this victim mentality, watch how different refs work, what they tend to pull up, and adjust how we play to what they do. I don't think they are biased (although with Hewer it times it can be hard to believe) but they are prone to incompetence (see Tompkins first try).

Iain,I agree with you about the victim mentality as we gave away two or three stupid penalties throughout the game,but all I ask is that the referees are consistent,you mention the first Tomkins try which the referee waived play on whereas the one that we picked up in exactly the same circumstances he called us back and awarded a scrum with our feed.

The penalties for lying on against us were no different than some of the Wigan lying on yet he appeared to penalize one side for most of the time and I cant accept as other posters have suggested that some teams know just how long that they can lie on for at the play the ball.