There was a difference between the two incidents though. In the first one he should have stopped play because Tomkins knocked on by getting a hand to the ball when it was passed. In the second one Wigan simply lost the ball. Bentham should have let us play on but gave absolutely no advantage.

To be honest the penalty count was pretty even from what I gather. I just think certain penalties were given that shouldn't and also there were a few back to back penalties that really hurt us. I thought he was really poor today!!

Oh i guarantee it wasn't mate.

Just what I was trying to say - the refs are what the refs are - we need to accept that, understand it and try and use that knowledge to our own advantage.

On the lying on issues today, it would be very interesting to watch a video with a stopwatch and just see if our perception of being hard done to is actually right.

All that said - I think one area that could be massively improved is policing of forward passes - get the touch judges involved!!!!!

k well i guarantee it was!!! we were just penalised for stupid stuff, Sidlow got done a few times for holding down which was Harsh. I thought they scored a few tries which were a joke, but I thought all of our tries were nicely crafted tries!!

That's how I saw it too. Glad you've clarified the rule regarding 'playing advantage.' This was my question at the time.



Agreed, agreed and agreed. This habitual sledging of the ref wears a little thin. (We sounded like Bradford fans today. "fooooorward."icon_wink.gif I really doubt there's any bias from the refs and suspect it's about time we do our homework in order to get the best out of each ref, depending on their interpretation of the rules.

All the top sides seem to get away with slowing down the play of the ball/lying on, and being offside. But is that because the refs are bent, or because top teams spend a lot of time working on wrestling and movement in the defensive line (rather than just standing offside). Yes we are hard done by at times, but rather than moan we need to do something about it. If we want to progress, these are the types of areas we need to fine tune to give us an edge and make us more competitive.

I think wigan were very clever yesterday, any hint of slowing the play the ball down they were struggling and wriggling and giving the impression that they were being slowed down, whilst our lads just waited until they get off.

I think wigan need a little bit of credit as they look at different parts of the game to exploit! i.e 3 men in a tackle = more time in the ruck!

He was very poor yesterday but what annoyed me yesterday were 2 fans at the front of the shed, they were both shouting abuse at Malc and Highton, calling names at Patten and the rest of the players, both were quite elderly, one had a funny hat on and the other had a cap on with badges on it, both are an absolute disgrace to the club

Tomkins knock on should have been seen by both the TJ and Bentham. Sorry no excuses there.

The 2nd half one, I think he had already blown for the knock on by the time we reacted and collected the ball so correct call.

The club should invite an official over to explain the differences in play betwen the pens we gave any and the methods employed by Wigan.

Fans don't help by abusing the ref, the ironic reaction is so much better.

This isn`t a new thing we get nailed for technical infringements time and time again. This has hapenned for a few years now and rather than pointing out the ref every time we need to look at what we are doing (or arent doing!). It isn`t down to one specific ref they all penalise us, weren`t not a dirty team but the penalty count is always against us usually for technical fouls.
I`d love to see the split between tech fouls & dirty fouls.

i hope the club invite the referee's down to the club preseason so they can identify what is a foul and what isnt, im sure stewart cummings does go to each club and highlights any rule changes but imo i think it would benefit both parties if as a club we invited each official down so we can fix what is going wrong.
Its the advantage rule which upsets fans, some the ref brings back some the refs let go consistancy is what us fans want let everything go or let nothing go simple

As for yesterday the penality count was 14-2 so with that much ball wigan should reaily have put us away,

According to todays League Express the penalty count was 10 - 7 in Wigans favour.