Thought I'd post this while we were winning incase we lost ad et accused if being bitter. Is this the most "homer" ref going.

That is all.

I'm just back from the game,which was fantastic. Full credit to the players and staff at Salford.
Hicks is a classic referee,who knows all the laws of the game,but has no feel for the game or the players.
He specialises in smart a,,e decisions that tend to spoil most games. He really has no right to be at the level he is in match officiating.there are in my opinion better referees in the lower division.

I don't know his history, but he looks like a bloke that's never played any sport of any sort. He reminds of what our old Gym teacher (a really tough Wigan lad), used to call "the sick,lame and lazy" when taking excuse notes as to why little Johnny etc brought yet another note from home. As I freely admit I may be wrong, but he does nothing to inspire me with any confidence.

On a similar note: I was saying to my lad the other day: some of our officials appear not to understand "ball dynamics" (for want of a better expression). When you've played Rugby or football, you know why a ball turns, spins and more importantly has downward pressure etc on it. It's a lot easier now as the balls have motifs on them and you can see which way they have turned or spun.

Rant over.

Great result today: in spite of everything.

I do know that he was refereeing at university,not playing.
I have always believed the best referees,have played at some level.
Mr Hicks,to put it bluntly is very self confident.

He looks the type that goes walking in long socks and Jesus sandals. Bet he does all the ironing at home and his wife bosses him about. That aside, what a fantastic victory.

The thing that annoyed me the most was when we broke through in the first half and the I think it was the full back holding down to prevent us playing the ball quickly. It was blatantly a professional foul and prevented a try scoring opportunity. Where was the yellow card?
Also in the first half, when we held them in their own 20 after 4 or 5 tackles he found some excuse to give them a penalty to get them out of trouble.
I'd also like to see their second try on TV as it looked like a knock on to me.
Thankfully it didn't affect the result.

We had him last week at Leeds and the comments here ring similar. Doesn't inspire confidence that he has control of the game and is a 'letter of the law' official who lacks common sense about playing the game in his decisions.

Why not have an end of season charity match between a Superleague XIV v The Referees to give them some playing experience to help improve their decision making. Now I'd pay big money to see this, would you?

thought he was OK today, let both teams lay on and mess around and let both sides stand offside numerous times.

consistent,thats all we ask for.

thought he might have bottled the tasi sending off as most ref's are loathe to produce cards versus huddersfield, but fair play to him for that.