What jools has described i completely agree with , and it's the reason Union is leaving league behind, on the field as well as off it. Union players are not angels by any means but the game has not yet sunk to the cynical levels of league, and the Refs are of a far higher standard ( despite having to watch for 10 times as many infringements .

Last nights game was lost IMO because the Giants couldn't live with the change of pace Cas injected immediately the second half kicked off. within 10 minutes they had gone from 6 down to 6 up and it wasn't because of cheating or fouling, it was because they were faster and far more skillful just about everywhere on the field. Cas are no angels either but they are no better or worse that all the other teams , Players will do what they have to do to try and win the game, It's up to the RFL to make sure they and their coaches stay within the spirit of the game.

Instead of whinging about Cas we need to spend the winter trying to emulate their style, We have survived to fight again next year, which is all i was hoping for, now we need to push forward and get our whole game to a differet level.
Iffy was great last night, but it must be a bit sickening when you make a 40yd break and then they lose the ball on the first tackle. Does anyone know how many setts we completed , if we did complete any.

Agree with all that. Cas have been generaly good all season and I have been pleased to see a new face on the block doing well. But last night they played a cheating game as we were holding them to a close game and they reverted to conning the referee. It is down to the referees to start brandishing the yellow cards more often .Then the coaches would start saying "Hey let`s stick to the rules". Shenton and Gale should have been binned (Gale twice). We can blame our lads for not taking advantage like Cas did, such as walking forward a metre and a half before playing the ball, causing our players to get penalized when it should have been the other way for walking off the mark. Cas play some great stuff legally but have gone down in my book now as cheats. Glad they won the LLS but hope now they slip up in the play-offs.

Jools. The refereeing standards are abysmal. I know a refereeing assesor and he says they are poor quality. Foul and cheating play should be heavily penalized and carded if need be irrispective of how many players are in the bin. Then the coaches will start coaching rugby again instead of cheating tactics if they are losing games.
And we could start with the basics of rugby league, like playing the ball properly with the foot, it is just a joke with most players now, they just stride over it.
I noticed the other week when Leigh were playing that most of their players played the ball pretty well and legal and look where they ended up in the league. The laws/rules of the game are there to be carried out and it is up to the referees to follow them and they are not doing their job, that`s why people are losing interest. The players/coaches and referees are not being honest any more.

And when child tried to do that this week he was criticised for "not allowing the game to flow"

Jools I never normally agree with anything you say but I do on this . You are correct ref standards are abysmal and last night at times I was bored myself I hope more coaches follow the Powell way or I fear our game will continue to decline

I actually thought last night was a decent game, however the amount off slow rucks both teams got away with was shocking! I could tell the ref was relatively inexperienced as both teams were doing it.

My thing that riled me was, he pulled Cas for not being square 3 times but when Huddersfield (Cudjoe and then Leeming) were at least 3 yards off being square in consecutive tackles but no penalty given. He atleast needed to be consistent.

Anyway good luck for the rest of the season.

Some hilarious one-eyed bilge in here.

Shudds just couldn't match Cas once they put the foot down. No disgrace in that, not many clubs can.

Agree with this, thought it was a good game, and Cas the best team we've seen this season, considering we had a pretty strong team out last night too.

Gives us a feel for the level we need to move too in the second half (they are the new benchmark), the first was great from out POV.

I for one want Cas to go on and win the GF, I have a sneaky feeling they will be playing Wigan in the semi, they need to step up again as the pies are a harder task to beat at the business end, as are Leeds.

For us its season over, I think my expectations for 2018 are top 4, I feel a lot more confident Stone will get us close, we aren't far off.

I'm not saying ref standards are abysmal- I'm saying the cheating and pushing of the rules has made the refs job impossible. And Powell has cas doing the same- so no- let's not follow the Powell way.

maybe its time for two refs on the field?

do it in the nrl, can the rfl afford it though.

its a joke that the same code of rugby has a different amount of refs anyway!

did anyone watch london v warrington lastnight, wow some shocking decisions against london, warrington should have lost lastnight.

That's a good point about the two ref's Brearley, I do agree with jools about the cynical cheating side of the game that is becoming more prevalent, and you have to put most of the blame for that at the door of the coaches, It does make the ref's job harder and they are already of a lower standard than is required so why not have two ref's if it's going to improve things.
I watched the London game, and you are right, London were on the end of some shocking decisions, trouble is nothing is ever done about it.

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There are already three officials at each game. You want to add another.
Yesterday I watched a very enjoyable game with just a single official, no touch judges. This official did an excellent job- something agreed by supporters of both teams- even the losing one! The job was made easy for her as at no point in the game was it necessary to award a penalty for foul play. That's because the 13 year olds involved in the game were focused on using their rugby skills to win the game. The final score was 20-16 - and I enjoyed watching it much more than either the two super 8s SL games or qualifiers on this weekend. The rules those 13 year olds play to are EXACTLY the same as those other games, they play on a full size pitch but they just play for less time a half, any sinnbinning is therefore 5 mins not 10 and they can play with size 4 ball. (Though most teams agree to use 5). Otherwise no difference.
There was more "rugby" in that 50 minute game than in the 80 minutes of the other three.
So either this young woman is a superref - or it IS possible to referee a proper game of rugby league with one official.