I'm going to give the officials, excuse the pun, the benefit of doubt, for this round of rugby.
The refs, linesmen and video refs may be rusty and or teething.

BUT I expect a big improvement by round 2.

I'm doing the same. FWIW the 7 penalties on the bounce were all correct. When Pelissier eventually scored there was still a Saints player nowhere near onside.

if Travis Burns is going to be offside all game he may want to rethink those bright yellow boots

I think Cummings is looking to feather his nest. After the grand final, he had a page in the paper analysing every single try and penalty.

I think people dramatically over exaggerate the standard of refereeing. The only difference is that 30 years ago we didn't have all the replays from 10 different angles, you just had to accept the call. If you ask me, our lot are far better than the NRL lot

Plus One.

The only time I do disagree with the Refs is when they award anything to that Rabble from Stains.

2 games into this eagerly awaited season and what do we talk about,yep the standard of reffing,,nothing about the quality of play(not that ive seen much of that)says it all really..bet the aussies coming here to play our club sides are cacking it...

Were you watching the game when referees were under the stewardship of Greg McCallum? If so, I am sure you would agree the standards have declined since he left.

I think I am right in saying that the NRL video ref panel has an ex player and a ref rather than 2 ref's. The much maligned Matt Rodwell is often part of the video ref teams. If we had that then all the fuss last year about obstructions would have been avoided and catalans first try last night would have stood.

Yes, but the NRL video referees are still prone to screw ups. Having ex players in there is not going to change that.

Contrary to popular belief, the NRL refs/video refs are not as good as people make out.

It really does beggar belief that so many wrong decisions can be given when there are so many referees in whatever capacity at each game. Every poor decision can influence a game & unless the rules of the game are upheld they may as well be scrapped. May be it is time to pay the officials on a performance related scale....this could easily be assessed by the match review panel & any slackers could be penalised.

'kinell

These clowns would end up OWING money, not earning

Loads of people queuing up to be referees, aren't there?

Well, I've heard that
Laurel and Hardy
Tim Nice But Dim
Norman Wisdom
The Chuckle Brothers
and Frank Spencer all went to Red Hall recently, and got their Grade II refereeing licenses.

Rumour has it, the hierarchy think that Wisdom is already a better refer than James Child, despite being dead for a number of years

i think you should have ago...

You're right SAM.
Most fans have never tried, and have the benefit of Sky video replays.

The top tier refs should be better than your average Joe because it's their profession and they're reasonably well paid, however they have an awful lot of things to contend with including directives from Red Hall - may of which we do not know about.
It's true that some refs have poor games but some on here think they deliberately set out to **** a game up. They don't.

It's not just in rugby league - the same in football and increasinly in cricket.

Union is different - only because it's so damn complicated - the ref could blow up every 5-6 seconds for any one of 5 or 6 incidents. (And that's entertainment ?? Not).

I just wish Edie and Stevo would shut up about it on Sky. I think Cummins provides very good insight and common sense - knowing ALL the rules unlike those two.